Despite the rain and slushy roads, film and history buffs turned up in good numbers to watch the 1932 German war film, Kreuzer Emden, directed by Louis Ralph, at Woodlands theatre in Royapettah on Sunday morning.

The film is about the various missions of SMS Emden, a German warship, which bombed Madras on September 22, 1914, and its eventual destruction at the hands of an Australian warship, HMAS Sydney.

The screening, which was organised jointly by German Consulate General, Chennai and members of the Indo-Cine Appreciation Foundation, was preceded by a welcome address by Achin Fabig, consul general, and a short talk by Professor A.R. Venkatachalapathy from the Madras Institute of Development Studies, who provided the historical context.

“The screening of the film does not aim to further understand the role played by the Emden in World War I or to even glorify it. It takes a critical approach to the attack,” said Mr. Fabig.

Drawing attention to how the film’s cinematographer Josef Wirsching went on to work in several Hindi feature films in Bombay, he said that Indians and Germans also seem to have shared artistic traditions.

Professor Venkatachalapathy began his talk by bemoaning the fact that Indians care too little for history. “We understand war as something spectacular and tend to glorify it. India has been lucky not to have experienced destruction of such scale,” he said.

Speaking about the Emden, Professor Venkatachalapathy said that it symbolised the ascendancy of Germany on the seas, which had previously been dominated by England. “Within months of attacking Madras, it managed to pass into popular culture. It is today a part of local parlance,” he said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Udhav Naig / Chennai – October 27th, 2014