Der plötzliche Reichtum der armen Leute von Kombach

1) "For centuries held in deep ignorance, they were unable to see the true cause of their suffering." However, not even the omniscient narrator can answer the true cause - only the film itself can: the true tragedy of peasants is not their material poverty, but their wretched imagination, which only enables them to identify with the "ideals" of their enemies, i.e., the rich and the masters. The touching effort of suddenly wealthy people to behave like nobility is not only the source of their inability to escape the world in which they live and truly change it, and thus their lives as well, but also the cause of their downfall. U. Sinclair provided a similar example in "The Jungle" (1906): the main protagonist (a poor worker) acquires a hundred-dollar bill, but how is he to use it? When he attempts to do so, he ends up at the police station because a poor person with money is suspicious in and of itself. From this, two lessons emerge: you have to be wealthy in order to steal even more (let us remember the recent economic crisis), and above all: a poor person will never find happiness if they only reproduce the lifestyle and mindset of the ruling elites. The same illusion appears in the attempt to escape to the USA (a low-tax haven both today and in the 19th century!) - this illusion stems from the same distorted imagination as outlined above. /// 2) Even if the viewer has not yet recognized the author's commentary on the contemporary/current social situation in it, everything changes with reflection on the musical accompaniment - the interchange of positions between the historical narrative and contemporary music establishes a scathing analogy between the past and the present. (27.02.2015)