‘Love for a person of the same sex can be just as pure and noble as love between the sexes.’ This intertitle captures the central message of Anders als die Andern. Released in 1919, it is considered one of the earliest surviving feature films to place homosexuality at the heart of its story.
The leading role is played by Conrad Veidt, who would become world-famous a year later in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. He plays Paul Körner, a concert violinist who develops feelings for a young pupil. His family sends him to a sexologist, played by the prominent sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, who assures him that his sexuality is neither an illness nor a crime. The outside world thinks differently. Paul is blackmailed and subsequently prosecuted.
Hirschfeld helped finance the film and co-wrote the story with director Richard Oswald. He openly opposed Paragraph 175, the German law that criminalised sexual relations between men. The film was initially approved for public exhibition, but was banned fifteen months later. From then on, only scientists and specialists were permitted to see it.
Under the Nazi regime, attempts were made to destroy every existing print. Decades later, an incomplete version was recovered and restored using surviving fragments, documents and intertitles. Not everything has survived, but the original film’s visual style, humanity and political message remain intact. Sadly, that message is still needed today.
About the Netherlands Silent Film Festival
The Netherlands Silent Film Festival (NSFF) in Eindhoven is the largest festival dedicated to silent film in the Netherlands. In this original form of cinema, stories are told through images, expression and music. Without spoken dialogue, the inventiveness of the filmmakers takes centre stage.
At the festival and through programmes presented throughout the year, NSFF makes the cinematic heritage of the silent era accessible to a wide audience. It does so through film screenings, educational projects, workshops and lectures. The creativity and innovation of early cinema deserve to be seen and heard again.
For its programme, the NSFF team follows current developments in the international world of silent film, from recent rediscoveries and restorations to new research. Audience favourites share the bill with hidden gems, all presented with live musical accompaniment by international film musicians.
