This remarkable version of Josef von Baky’s famous interpretation of the fantastic adventures of Baron von Münchhausen is being screened as homage to the activities of Jürgen Labenski. For more than 25 years, Labenski has made many important films accessible to a wide audience for German television (ZDF). The original is a product of the propaganda machine of the Third Reich. To mark the 25th anniversary of the Ufa in 1943, propaganda minister Goebbels wanted a major colour film made to compete with the glitter and gleam from Hollywood. In 1978 a restored version of the film was presented at the Cannes festival, but it still had many gaps compared with the original. Labenski worked to complete a version with the missing scenes. Unfortunately there was not enough money to make a film copy, so this version only exists on video. For years, the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung has been working on the final complete version as a film copy, but this was unfortunately not yet available for the festival.
