Sohnen is a town built on vice for the occupying American forces in Cold War Germany. Robert, a local truck driver who sells off gravel from the site he works on as a side hustle, runs into an old flame, Inge. Inge is now respectably married to American officer John who runs the site. Driving in Robert’s truck, tragedy strikes and he and Inge must do their best to cover up a pair of dead bodies. From Helmut Käutner, unknown in the UK but the subject of numerous recent retrospectives and hailed as an underappreciated master, his films have remained difficult to see outside of Germany until recently: Black Gravel has been restored by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung in two versions, the ‘Premiere version’ and a ‘Distribution version’, the latter of which removing two moments of antisemitism, something which Käutner was unafraid of portraying in the film as still being present in society but proved to be too uncomfortable for audiences at the time.
Details by Film
Black Gravel
Distribution CutBlack Gravel
Uncensored CutStreaming Options
Release Information:
Technical Specifications
Supplements
- Includes both uncensored original cut and the re-edited distribution cut
- Audio commentary with film historian Olaf Möller (2020)
- New introduction from writer and programmer Margaret Deriaz (2024)
- Newsreel footage of film set featuring behind-the-scenes footage and an interview with Helmut Käutner (1960)