To understand and appreciate the meaning of "Heimatfilm" you have to consider a few facts. The word "Heimatfilm" has in cinematographic Germany of today not such a good sound. But that is the kind of entertainment the people in Germany needed after the traumatic WW II. That Genre was totally produced for the taste of the masses and served well for this. It is a similar speciality of German cinematography like the Karl May films (Winnetou and friends) and the Edgar Wallace films of the sixties. Nothing that can be very interesting for Non-Germans, neither could be understood by other people. You should notice that Germans in the fifties were not politically interested. They just wanted "Heimat", a manageable scope for daily life. Mostly the "Heimatfilm" plays in the mountain areas, where You could not see the damage the war brought to the German cities, the place as well where a short trip for holidays was possible for the German people. If You went for holidays, You went to the Sea or to the Mountains. The Heimatfilm and the Bergfilm", which is another speciality of the German cinematography (films featuring mountain stories), are closely related, the first comes from the latter. That started already in the twenties. Even Luis Trenker was a German filmmaker, because the people of South Tirol did not regard themselves as Italians ( and still don't) German film-making has not been a successful story in the last 30 years, but in the fifties with the Heimatfilm" and in the sixties it was. You could also grasp the meaning of these movies for the German audience when You compare them with the Bollywood movies. The Indian audience is also not interested in politics, they just want to escape into a hail world for a few hours. There are no more "Heimatfilme" for the cinema any longer, but there were always TV-series about the same Genre. What the "western" is for the US citizen is the "Heimatfilm" for the Germans. This is something for depth psychology. The Germans seem to have a strong inclination for having a nice time in a natural surrounding (natural but under control) where they can dedicate themselves to their "Weltschmerz" and cultivate their longing for peace and harmony (which should not be interrupted again). So far it is not alarming that violence-films are not produced in this country. Unfortunately they are shown on TV, made in the USA. The elder people look the harmless "Heimatfilm", the younger look violence- and action-films. A new generation of violent-prepared Germans is brought up, with the help of US movie and TV productions.
