Politics DEATH AT DAWN SMS SZENT ISTVAN - Interspot Film
Politics DEATH AT DAWN SMS SZENT ISTVAN - Interspot Film
Politics DEATH AT DAWN SMS SZENT ISTVAN - Interspot Film
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documentary<br />
History | <strong>Politics</strong><br />
<strong>DE<strong>AT</strong>H</strong> <strong>AT</strong> <strong>DAWN</strong><br />
S.M.S. <strong>SZENT</strong> <strong>ISTVAN</strong> - The Emperor’s Last Battleship<br />
The beginning and end of World War I were marked by two<br />
maritime events that were as tragic as they were allegorical.<br />
In June 1914, the Austrian crown prince and his wife were<br />
murdered in Sarajevo and their bodies were ferried to Trieste by<br />
the navy flagship VIRIBUS UNITIS. In June 1918, the tragic<br />
sinking of its sister ship S.M.S. <strong>SZENT</strong> <strong>ISTVAN</strong> signalled the<br />
end of the imperial & royal navy and, ultimately, the Austro-<br />
Hungarian Monarchy.<br />
The events of that memorable 10th June 1918 are at the centre<br />
of this documentary. The Austrian dreadnought S.M.S. <strong>SZENT</strong><br />
<strong>ISTVAN</strong>, built in a blaze of scandals and put to sea for its first<br />
mission just off the coast of Croatia, met its fate in form of an<br />
Italian torpedo boat. A single hit sank the proud and seemingly<br />
invulnerable capital ship of the Austro-Hungarian navy, before it<br />
even had a chance to engage in battle.<br />
Invaluable archive stock, supplemented by reenactments, a<br />
diving expedition to the wreck and 3D animation elucidate the<br />
tragedy and highlight the political and social conditions<br />
prevailing in the last months of the First World War. The fate that<br />
befell the <strong>SZENT</strong> <strong>ISTVAN</strong> anticipated and thus symbolised the<br />
breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.<br />
length<br />
50 minutes<br />
writer & director<br />
maria magdalena koller<br />
year<br />
2008<br />
producers<br />
heinrich mayer (interspot)<br />
peter bardehle (vidicom)<br />
format<br />
HDTV<br />
completed
documentary<br />
History | <strong>Politics</strong><br />
<strong>DE<strong>AT</strong>H</strong> <strong>AT</strong> <strong>DAWN</strong><br />
S.M.S. <strong>SZENT</strong> <strong>ISTVAN</strong> - The Emperor’s Last Battleship<br />
T<br />
he S.M.S. <strong>SZENT</strong> <strong>ISTVAN</strong> was a dreadnought, a heavily armed battleship with triple gun turrets.<br />
This ship, the prize of the monarchy´s fleet, spent 937 days in the naval port of Pula before sailing<br />
to a major offensive with its sister ship, the TEGETTHOFF, on June 9, 1918, an attack on the Otranto<br />
barrage, intended to break the hold of the Allies. But things turned out differently: Premuda, June<br />
10, 1918, 6:05 a.m. The most modern battleship in the Austro-Hungarian empire’s<br />
fleet was on its maiden voyage when hit by two torpedoes launched by Luigi Rizzo, making him a<br />
national hero in Italy.<br />
A man onboard the ship also became a hero: Franz Dueller. A petty officer, he was the head of the<br />
crew in the aft stokehold, where the second torpedo hit. Dueller and his men were able to keep the<br />
ship afloat for almost three hours, thanks to which most of the crew was saved.<br />
90 years have past since then. Valerie Herrnstein, Franz Dueller’s daughter, sets off to investigate her<br />
father’s story. Vienna’s Military Archive contains a report she wasn’t aware of in which her father<br />
described the last few hours of the <strong>SZENT</strong> <strong>ISTVAN</strong>. The elderly woman’s shown touching documents<br />
telling the story of the mightiest battleship in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy’s fleet.<br />
A lucky find makes it unnecessary to re-enact the sinking: a silent movie shot in 1923 tells of the<br />
dramatic events from the viewpoint of Luigi Rizzo, commander of the Italian torpedo boat. The film,<br />
stored in the archives of the Istituto Luce, stars Luigi Rizzo as himself, creating his personal<br />
“monument”.<br />
The TEGETTHOFF was present in June 1918 when the <strong>SZENT</strong> <strong>ISTVAN</strong> set sail, and stock shot from<br />
aboard the TEGETTHOFF has survived. Veritable treasures excavated from the archives show works<br />
being performed on the ship.<br />
The period footage of the <strong>SZENT</strong> <strong>ISTVAN</strong> and the 1923 film in which Luigi Rizzo played himself will<br />
alternate with re-enactments throughout the film to best convey the drama of the events of June 10,<br />
1918, the sinking of the Austro-Hungarian navy battleship and its backstory.<br />
In September 2007, the team undertook a diving expedition to film the wreck of the <strong>SZENT</strong> <strong>ISTVAN</strong><br />
lying 70 metres down on the bottom of the sea off the coast of Croatia. A team of expert deep-sea<br />
divers from Austria and Croatia penetrated to the wreck and gained breathtaking impressions.<br />
For further information please contact<br />
HEINRICH MAYER<br />
<strong>Interspot</strong> <strong>Film</strong>-Ges.m.b.H<br />
phone: + 43 1 | 80 120-420<br />
e-mail: mayer@interspot.at<br />
PETER BARDEHLE<br />
Vidicom Medienproduktion<br />
phone: + 49 40 | 22 21 33<br />
e-mail: bardehle@vidicom-tv.com<br />
Produced by<br />
In association<br />
with<br />
For Distributed by<br />
Program Sales<br />
http://tvsales.ORF.at
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