Heimat

Heimat is the overall title of three series of films in 30 episodes written and directed by Edgar Reitz which view life in Germany between 1919 and 2000 through the eyes of a family from the Hunsrück area of the Rhineland. Personal and domestic life is set against glimpses of wider social and political events. The combined length of the 30 films is 53 hours and 25 minutes, making it one of the longest series of feature-length films in cinema history. The title Heimat is a German word meaning "homeland". Its use is partly an ironic reference to the film genre known as Heimatfilm which was... popular in Germany in the 1950s. Heimatfilms were noted for their rural settings, sentimental tone and simplistic morality. Aesthetically, all three series are notable for their artful switching between colour and black-and-white film to convey different emotional states. Heimat, the original series, premiered in 1984 and follows the life of Maria Simon , a woman living in the fictional village of Schabbach . The film spans the years 1919 to 1982.
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