'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

Maikäfer flieg.
dein Vater ist im Krieg
die Mutter ist im Pommerland
Pommerland ist abgebrannt
Maikäfer flieg (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 92). 50
When the song is finished the beetle flies away and Lene laughs joyfully and
looks downwards. A close-up shot of Anna‟s face depicts her watching the scene. The
camera then cuts back to Lene to show her sighing in a relieved fashion. A medium-
range documentary shot then shows the wreckage of another smouldering German
airplane. Next follow close-up documentary shots of a soldier‟s blood-smeared face and
hand. After this, Lene recounts the “Räuberbräutigam” fairy tale to Anna as they wander
through the German countryside.
Several themes of the “Maikäferlied” resonate with the images of this sequence to
produce layers of meaning. The green background in the enacted close-up shot of Lene
shows that it is spring, a concept that is reinforced by the mention of the month of May in
the term “Maikäfer.” The evocation of spring, Lene‟s joyful laugh and sigh of relief, and
the radio announcement of Hitler‟s death conspire together to create a sense of release
from tension in the viewer. This feeling of release underscores Lene‟s sense of liberation
from the darkness of war and winter. However, these positive impressions are starkly
juxtaposed with the tragic mood created by the newsreel footage showing the destruction
war causes to human lives and property. The images of Hitler‟s bunker and a plane
engulfed in flames reverberate with the line in the song describing the destruction of
Pomerania. The documentary footage and the radio announcement create a sense of
50 “Cockchafer fly / Your father is at war. / Your mother is in Pomerania / Pomerania has burnt down /
Cockchafer fly” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 92).
66