'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

R.R.: The next question is about the Maikaifer flieg! song. The Maikaifer flieg! song was
first heard during the Thirty Years‟ War in Germany. From my research I found that it
came from that period. Later people sang it at the end of WWII when the Russians
invaded the east of Germany. Why did you include the Maikaifer flieg! song in the film?
Does Lene sing this song to Anna to help her daughter deal with the trauma of war in a
way a child can understand?
H.S.-B.: Um…no…this was to show the relief of the war being over. It happened that
while we were shooting these scenes I talked to you about, these scenes that had to
replace the scenes I had already shot, there was a may beetle, and it was sitting on [Eva
Mattes‟s] hand and she said, “Oh, there‟s a may beetle, the first may beetle of this year.”
I said, “Let‟s film it.” We brought the camera and we were shooting and at the moment
when we were shooting the May beetle started to fly. And while I was shooting, I said,
“Why don‟t you sing this song?” It was not something that I had planned for a long time
and carefully reflected upon…It just happened. And in my opinion this song is a very old
one; it‟s older than the thirties. It‟s at least from the 19 th century or even older, because
there has always been war in Germany.
R.R.: So this May beetle coming, was this also similar to the flies on the flag at the
beginning?
H.S.-B.: The flies happened to be on this swastika banner and on that evening while we
were shooting, and I asked the director of photography to shoot that because I felt that it
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