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Saturday, Jan 11, 1986
Death of the White Steed (Der Tod des weissen Pferdes)
This rather remarkable historical epic, five years in the making, skillfully recreates sixteenth century Germany to tell of a moment in that country's history when social forces were in collision. It has a big name, The Peasants' Revolt of 1525, but it was played out, as this film affectingly articulates, by individuals, beginning with the selling of a feudal village to a despotic new lord. David Overbey writes for the Toronto Festival of Festivals '85, "(Der Tod des weissen Pferdes) is rich in the textured detail of sixteenth century Germany, but its characters wear clothes not costumes, live in huts, houses and farms, not in sets, and their concerns are those proper to historical thought.... Exciting in its action, emotionally moving, and stunning in imagery, the film may well have contemporary echoes but never betrays its perfect recreation of the past." This film was the official German entry at the Berlin Film Festival '85.
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