Rainer Simon

Biography

Rainer Simon was born on 11 January 1941 in Hainichen (Saxony) and grew up with his mother after his parents separated. After graduating from high school, he was called up for two years of military service with the National People's Army of the GDR in 1959. From 1961 to 1965 he studied directing at the German Academy of Film Arts in Potsdam-Babelsberg (today: Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf). After his diploma with the 21-minute "Peterle und die Weihnachtsgans Auguste" (GDR 1964) he started working at the DEFA Studio for Feature Films, among other things as assistant director to Ralf Kirsten and Konrad Wolf.

Simon's first own project, the adaptation of the novel "Die Moral der Banditen" by Horst Bastian, was abandoned in 1965 while still in the preparatory phase. Instead, he realised the semi-documentary holiday film "Freunde vom Werbellinsee" (1966) for the DEFA Studio for Popular Science Films, about the holiday camp on lake Werbellinsee. In 1968, Simon got a contract as director at the DEFA-Studio for Feature Films. Already in his first feature-length film, the fairytale "Wie heiratet man einen König" (GDR 1968), Simon's stylistic idiosyncrasies became apparent: the unusual staging of familiar motifs or literary models as well as dramaturgical condensations in emotionally effective images. The film about a wise peasant's daughter, who converts an arbitrarily ruling king to the better through wit and wisdom, was a success with the public and is today one of the classics of DEFA fairy tale adaptations.

With "Gewöhnliche Leute", his contribution to the episodic film "Aus unserer Zeit" (GDR 1969), Simon turned his attention to a contemporary subject, as in "Männer ohne Bart" (GDR 1971), about a student caught between the duties of reality and his vivid imagination.

Simon tried to make the fairy tale adaptation "Sechse kommen durch die Welt" (GDR 1972) interesting for an adult audience by integrating it into a comprehensive social milieu; the leading role was played by the Czech director Jiří Menzel, who made a significant contribution to the Prague Spring - with which Simon also hinted at his own political views. In "Till Eulenspiegel" (GDR 1974) Simon placed the title character, often reduced to a rogue, in a historical situation (the German Peasant Wars) and set a humanistic world view in history in relation to medieval-clerical thinking. "Zünd an, es kommt die Feuerwehr" (GDR 1978), about a voluntary fire brigade group that tries to create the occasion for its own operations, was a satire on German club chatter.

In 1980 Simon shot "Jadup und Boel" ("Jadup and Boel"), based on a novel by Paul Kanut Schäfer, in which the post-war dreams of a small-town mayor collide with real socialism in the GDR. However, the film was banned shortly before its premiere in 1981 and was only shown years later (see below). In his subsequent project "Das Luftschiff" (GDR 1982), Simon translated the exuberant fantasy of the underlying novel into cinematic language and drew an ironically broken panorama of the first half of the 20th century. "Die Frau und der Fremde" ("The Woman and the Stranger", GDR 1984) was based on the novella "Karl und Anna" by Leonhard Frank. The film won the Golden Bear at the 1985 Berlin IFF as well as several prizes in the GDR. Due to copyright disputes, however, it was not allowed to be shown in West Germany.

The elaborately produced family saga "Wengler & Söhne" ("Wengler & Sons", GDR 1987) tells the story of the German Reich between 1871 and 1945 through three generations of craftsmen and workers. In 1988, "Jadup und Boel" (see above) was finally premiered; in 1990, the film was awarded the Jury Prize at the Eberswalde Film Festival. Today, "Jadup und Boel" is considered one of the most important DEFA productions of the last GDR decade.

"Die Besteigung des Chimborazo" (GDR/DE 1989) described Alexander von Humboldt's expedition to the Andes at the end of the 18th century. Roland Dressel was responsible for the impressive cinematography. In the 1980s he was the cameraman for all of Simon's films.

"Der Fall Ö" (GDR/DE 1990/91), based on a story by Franz Fühmann, combined motifs from Sophokles' "King Oedipus" with the situation in German-occupied Greece during World War II. "Fernes Land Pa-isch" (1994), Simon's last feature film, was about a 16-year-old and his five-year-old half-sister who search in vain for love and security between Hamburg and Berlin.

In addition to his work as a filmmaker, Rainer Simon was also a professor at his alma mater in Potsdam-Babelsberg (1993-1996). He also held workshops with young filmmakers in various South American countries. There he also made two documentaries: "Die Farben von Tigua" (1994), about naive tribal art of the Quichua in the Ecuadorian Andes, and "Mit Fischen und Vögeln reden" (1999), about the Záparo in the Amazon rainforest.

In 2000, Rainer Simon staged Ludwig Fels' play "Soliman" at the Hans Otto Theater in Potsdam. In 2005, his autobiography "Fernes Land Pa-isch, die DDR, die DEFA und der Ruf des Chimborazo" was published and his first novel "Regenbogenboa", about a German who spends the last decades of his life in the Amazon region. On the occasion of a photo exhibition of Simon's, the book "Hinter die Bilder schauen - Texte und Fotos aus Amerika" was published in 2011; the novel "Fiktive Mails" followed in 2014.

Rainer Simon lives in Potsdam.