Michael Gwisdek Movies

It is difficult these days to imagine that elementary school education was instituted by anyone at all. In fact, Swiss experimental educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827) laid the groundwork for universal elementary school education and developed many of the educational theories and techniques in use even in the present day. This film focuses on a critical period in Pestalozzi's development of his educational theories, when he was running a boarding school in a disused convent for impoverished village children in the French part of Switzerland. At the time, Pestalozzi (Gian Maria Volonte) was regarded as a strange renegade, and it had only been with great difficulty that he was able to persuade even the poorest parents that his efforts to feed, clothe, and educate their children might be beneficial to them. Most of the story is told in flashbacks, narrated by one of his friends and supporters. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

When a factory night watchman is found murdered, his delectable daughter and a local detective investigate what happened, in this slow-moving mystery. They discover that the site where the body was found has been the scene of frequent murders since the 16th century. The night watchman's successor also looks into the mystery and discovers clues which point to the factory's owner as someone who can supply some answers. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Konig is a very minor cog in a huge piece of legal machinery, a low-level state prosecutor. He would like to be a bigger cog, but when he gets involved investigating a routine bankruptcy case which turns out to implicate governmental higher-ups, he opts for something resembling professional integrity over what he knows the government would prefer and effectively kisses his career goodbye. This film marks the directing debut of the well-known character actor Hark Bohm, who also stars. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This docudrama by director Hark Bohm is about a famous murder case in West Germany during the early 1980s (the Marie Bachmeier case). Marie Sellbach (the fictional Bachmeier played by Marie Colbin) is a mother struggling to raise her seven-year-old daughter while working at a bar in Hamburg and carrying on two relationships -- one with the father of her daughter, and one with another worker at the bar. When Marie's daughter disappears, the mother fears the worst and her fears are well-founded -- her daughter was sexually attacked and murdered. The murderer was caught and brought to trial, and in broad daylight, in the middle of the courtroom, Marie raises a handgun and kills him. Her action was immediately picked up by all the papers and set off a storm of response throughout the country. For viewers who would like more information on the case, this film leans toward the sensational rather than the factual. At the same time, director Bohm was racing against the clock to get this film completed while the Bachmeier case was still in the news and before Burkhard Dreist could come out with his version of the story, Anna's Mutter. Both films on the Bachmeier case were released within a few days of each other. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Filmed in 1983, but not released until 1985, this East German drama is set in Germany immediately after the end of World War II. Henry (Michael Gwisdek), a discharged soldier who was a prizefighter before the war, returns home from the front, where he had been wounded. He tries to start his life over again but finds himself unable to do anything but drift around the country. He wanders around until he comes across Xenia (Aniko Safar), a free-spirited prostitute living in an abandoned railroad car. She is willing to share her space with him. Gradually he tries to get up the courage to box again but wonders if his war injuries will affect his boxing career. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

In the confusion of events during World War II, a young woman marries one young man, receives an official report of his death, and then marries another. At the end of the war, the two husbands, both alive, accidentally meet on their way back to the woman. They play a kind of Russian Roulette in a minefield in order to see who will live with her, and the second man is killed. Unfortunately for the survivor, she truly loved the man who died. Dejected, he leaves her and seeks to discover some reason to go on living, which he eventually finds. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide