Chingachgook, die grosse Schlange = Chingachgook, the great snake

Notes

The second of DEFA's 'Indianerfilms', a highly successful genre that drew on historical stories and factual accounts of the American West with an emphasis on the experience of the American Indian, condensed the extensive plot of Cooper's novel by focusing primarily on the conflict between members of two Indian tribes. In 1740, English troops and French colonialist fighting over settlements in North America, employ local Indian tribes as mercenaries: the Huronese on the French side, the Delawarians on the English side. Chingachgook, a young Delaware soon realises that when the whites have finished using the Indians they plan to expel and exterminate them. To create costumes, masks, props and stage dances with historical accuracy, the production team conducted research in ethnological museums. After the premiere, a West Berlin daily newspaper wrote that the film contained ' ... more historical truth than most Hollywood Westerns put together.'

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