D 1981, D Recha Jungmann, SC Recha Jungmann with Titus Spree, David Schleiermacher, C Marian Czura, Renato Fortunato, Horst Zeidler, E Beatrice Wilbert, S Enzio Edschmid, Joseph Dillinger, P Susanne Osterried Filmproduktion for ZDF, Cast Titus Spree, David Schleiermacher, Werner Schroeter, Recha Jungmann, Alex Bergs, Birgitta Kummer, Annette Kalk, Print colour, 16mm, 105 min, German OV, Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V.

Recha Jungmann aspired to capture the image of her son before he would leave her charge behind, transcending from the children’s world of the moon to the adult world of the sun. With all intent the camera was used to record a slice of “private” Germany, and it does so more persuading than the film titled Deutschland privat. Jungmann worked with love and sensibility; the overexposed images of Titus as a small child, nestling up to her, suggest that letting her son go is a painful process. She portraits herself as a mess, jumping in the meadow betwixt father and son; trying in vain to freeze the time that’s slipping away. (Brigitte Jeremias, FAZ, 30.5.81) Recha Jungmann attempted to use tape and camera to capture her son’s secret emotions, desires and fears [...] with a camera, that partly follows the observing eyes of the mother, but also conveys what Titus, the son, is experiencing [...]. The film happens to not be as “private” as expected; Titus and David, subtly studied, readjust the image of the apathetic, self-absorbed teenager. Behind the roughness of them encountering their surroundings lies a unique, fascinating and even kinder world. (Carola Splettstösser, Badische Zeitung, 30.5.81) [A] film by a mother about her son. The camera moves around mother and son, like we’ve only seen before in home movies. […] She shows herself to be a woman who lives her own life, and as a mother whose sphere of influence is determined on the one hand by the child; on the other hand, she pushes this child to the sidelines. This is a combination that many audience members found intolerable. […] Between the Moon and the Sunis to me the most personal and direct film in the festival. [...] Recha Jungmann went as far as she could with her mother-son theme, displaying her fears, desires, sadness, and hopelessness – and her suppression of it all, so she could function. This is absolutely new. (Gesine Strempel, Courage, No. 4/1981).

The digital restoration is funded by Hessisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst.