CITY OF OBERTHAUSEN

LAYERS UNDER THE HAZE

The cinematic portrait of the city of Oberhausen shows everyday life in the West German industrial city in a way that was completely unusual at the time and unembellished. With the film, a year after its creation, the VI. West German Short Film Festival opened in Oberhausen.

Still from “LAYERS UNDER THE PHASE”, 1959

© City of Oberhausen

FIMOGRAPHIC DETAILS

Client: City of Oberhausen
Director: Herbert Viktor
Production: IFAG Film Production Wiesbaden
Year: 1959
Runtime: 14 minutes
Format: color

 

GO TO CONTENT

Today, after the disappearance of the last large industrial plants of coal and steel, hardly anyone can imagine the soot-darkened skies that lay over the cities of the Ruhr area in the 1950s. The film "Shifts under the haze" draws attention to the economic and social dynamics of life in Oberhausen at that time. The director of the film, Herbert Viktor, lets the daily routine of the steel and colliery workers set the rhythm of the film due to the shift work. We get an atmospheric insight into the underground shift, production processes in heavy industry above ground, but also the activities of the citizens in their everyday life and in their free time.

TO FILM PRODUCTION

The film was produced by IFAG film production in Wiesbaden with the director Herbert Viktor, who a year earlier had received the Federal Film Award for the best documentary film with his film report "Paradise and Fireplace" about the state of Israel. He continues his matter-of-fact, down-to-earth style and the gesture of having authentic people present decisive statements with "Shifts under the haze bell". It differs from other, often information-poor, embarrassingly self-promoting city advertising films in a pleasant way. As one of the few city films, it also shows footage of a demonstration train. The film was presented in the support program of commercial cinemas and at screenings as part of city advertising and worldwide cultural work, for example by the Goethe Institute.