Name: Oberstadtgass
Genre: Drama
Released: 1958-12-05
Duration: 1 h 35 min
Rating: 7.5
Cast: Schaggi Streuli, Margrit Rainer, Jürg Grau

Kurt Früh's "Oberstadtgass" - in reality the alleys and little streets around St. Peterhofstatt in central downtown Zürich - are a quarter of the Middle Ages. In 1956, most apartments are still non-renovated, have hardly any comfortable infrastructure, so that many poor people live here, while the other houses are inhabited by hand-workers. In the restaurant "Veltliner Keller" - today one of the priciest Zurich restaurants that serves exclusively high-style cuisine - the neighbors gather for a mug beer or cold Fleischkäse with mustard. From the movie it gets clear that only one family can be counted to the better-situated ones (Winterhalter). There is hardly circulation, the narrow streets are from cobblestone, people walk along steep stair-houses up to the roofs where they beat carpets and enjoy a little rest. Everybody knows everybody, the postman Jucker being naturally a central person. The old women gossip. When something extraordinary happens, the whole quarter knows it in no time. It is clear: Nobody is alone here, and even the nosiness of the neighbors testifies that everybody is part in a social network - qua social control. However, there are two exceptions. First the girl whom the postman does not know. This is explicitly said. She tries to commit suicide, but the sledge-hammer noise of the street prevent the old women from blowing up the story into a state occasion. Second, and mainly, there is Mäni Brändli, a half-orphan whose sick mother has to clean aborts in order to make a miserable living. The boy is tormented psychologically and physically by the other children, but he always manages to give them back - and unfortunately is as the only one perceived as being aggressive.

Postman Jucker and his wife had lost her one and only child, a boy, when he was 7 years old. When the sadistic Mr. Winterhalter intends to get Mäni's guardian, Mr. Jucker keeps the boy with him. However, this leads to big problems with his wife who connect overcome the loss of her own child. While this movie is a typical Schaggi-Streuli-movie (cf. "Polizischt Wäckerli"), its value, half a century after it was made, is mainly that it shows the enormous changing that Zurich has undergone in this decades. Where the lower-class people lived in their simple apartments, nowadays the richest of the rich live, all the apartments are fully renovated and brought up to a luxurious "standard". (A family apartment at St. Peterhofstatt costs today, in 2010, over 4'000 Swiss Franks, which is almost 4'000 dollars.) All the old restaurants still exist, but all have also changed into luxury establishments. It goes by itself, that the social cohesion between the families that live there is practically zero: one greets one another, but one would never stand together as they did 50 years ago in order to prove the innocence of the "abort-boy" (Hüüsli-Bueb) Mäni.

German cinema is famous for its historical depth, expressionist aesthetics, and social-political engagement. It has moved from Expressionism to political reckoning, from New German Cinema's raw realism to contemporary genre experiments. Its legacy lies in both technical innovation and deep explorations of history, morality, and philosophy.

The drama genre is a broad category that features stories portraying human experiences, emotions, conflicts, and relationships in a realistic and emotionally impactful way. Dramas delve into the complexities of human life, often exploring themes of love, loss, morality, societal issues, personal growth, with the aim to evoke an emotional response from the audience by presenting relatable and thought-provoking stories.

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Heini Ortenburger in Oberstadtgass (1956)

Jürg Grau and Sigfrit Steiner in Oberstadtgass (1956)

Jürg Grau and Emil Hegetschweiler in Oberstadtgass (1956)

Walter Roderer and Schaggi Streuli in Oberstadtgass (1956)

Anneliese Betschart, Schaggi Streuli, and Fritz Nussbaum in Oberstadtgass (1956)

Jürg Grau and Margrit Rainer in Oberstadtgass (1956)

Emil Hegetschweiler and Walter Roderer in Oberstadtgass (1956)

Margrit Rainer and Schaggi Streuli in Oberstadtgass (1956)

Oberstadtgass

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