Walter Heynowski

Directing

Walter Heynowski

Born November 20, 1927 · Ingolstadt, Germany

Died November 6, 2024 · aged 96

Walter Heynowski (* November 20, 1927 in Ingolstadt ; † November 6, 2024 in Berlin) was, together with Gerhard Scheumann, one of the most well-known and important documentary and propaganda film directors of the GDR. He also worked as a lyricist, screenwriter, screenwriter, and producer on numerous films.

Known For

Devil's IslandDevil's Island · 1976
Devil's Island
★ 7.01976
MovieDocumentary
Le Quang Vinh, a revolutionary student leader, was arrested in Saigon in August 1961. A show trial and death sentence followed. World-wide protests altered it to “life imprisonment” on Con Son, the Devil’s Island. The humiliating “Tiger-Cages” and the methods of torture are shown.
Der DschungelkriegDer Dschungelkrieg · 1983
Der Dschungelkrieg
1983
MovieDocumentary
Report on the conflicts around the People's Republic of Kampuchea
EhrenmännerEhrenmänner · 1966
Ehrenmänner
1966
MovieDocumentary
In two chapters the film shows men in divided Germany willing to leave their country. In the first chapter, East-Germans are shown who leave their wives and children behind in order to live in the Federal Republic of Germany. In the second chapter, unmarried West-Germans try to move to the German Democratic Republic.
PhoenixPhoenix · 1979
Phoenix
★ 10.01979
MovieDocumentary
The goal of the American operation "Phoenix" in Vietnam was to destroy all the bases of the liberation struggle. K. Barton Osborn, a former "Phoenix" officer, who publicly disassociated himself from it, talks about his experiences as a CIA agent. They are confirmed by the statements of General Bui Van Nhu, the last chief of the South Vietnamese police
A Refugee from VietnamA Refugee from Vietnam · 1979
A Refugee from Vietnam
1979
MovieDocumentary
After becoming notorious world-wide for a bloody killing, Nguyen Ngoc Loan, former general and chief of the South Vietnamese police, moved to the United States and opened a restaurant outside of Washington, D.C. Contrasting images from these two phases of his life are intercut.
The Dead Are Not SilentThe Dead Are Not Silent · 1978
The Dead Are Not Silent
★ 9.01978
MovieDocumentary
Moy de Tohá and Isabel Letelier tell their story. They are the widows of two Defence Ministers of the Unidad Popular, who knew too much.
P.S. to The Laughing ManP.S. to The Laughing Man · 1966
P.S. to The Laughing Man
★ 5.21966
MovieDocumentary
The epilogue to the film "The Laughing Man" (1966), which alternates between objectivity and anger, exposes the involvement of the West German mercenary Siegfried Müller in the war against the Congolese government Lumumba. In the sequel, new witnesses against Major Müller have their say, including a former school friend and a French paratrooper colonel. GDR lawyer Kaul reports on the status of the criminal proceedings against Müller, while the final images show the war criminal feeding the ducks in South Africa.
A Pillar In The StreamA Pillar In The Stream · 1983
A Pillar In The Stream
1983
MovieDocumentary
The story of communist Walter Zauner who in 1952 was one of the first in the Federal Republic to be convicted of sabotage of a military installation.

Filmography

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Hint from a NeighborHint from a Neighbor · 1966
Hint from a Neighbor
1966
MovieDocumentary
A polemical report. "Way to the neighbors" is the motto of the Oberhausen Short Film Festival. In their "Remarks on the Oberhausen 66 Film Festival," the GDR documentarians Gerhard Scheumann and Walter Heynowski take the competition selection to task: They see formal experiments as "excesses on the big screen" and instead of political themes, they discover a "surge of perversity." After her own film "Kommando 52" was rejected by the festival, a criminal complaint by the GDR lawyer Friedrich-Karl Kaul against the mercenary and commander "Kongo-Müller" is the focus of a press conference. The refusal of a cinema owner to show the film was a "hint from the neighbors", the neighboring public order office, and therefore state censorship in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Writer