Heimat 3 - A Chronicle Of Endings And Beginnings [DVD] [2003]

The second series of 'Heimat' remains my favourite, and this series suffers by not being as epic as the previous two series (apparently butchered in Germany) and a feeling that there is a bit of a soap opera quality to proceedings (e.g. the staple of the car-crash, the illness, the money problems of the heir) - the soap factors in the previous series weren't as apparent. Then again, Reitz and co are dealing with post-reunification Germany, which is a lot less certain than the era of the original series (mostly centred on the rise & fall of the Nazis and the rebirth of West Germany), or the 60s-centred 'Second Heimat'- which was close to Reitz' own experience.

The third series consists of the following episodes/films: Part One: 1989 'The Happiest People in the World';Part Two: 1990 'The Champions'; Part Three: 1992-1993 'The Russians are Coming'; Part Four: 1995 'Everyone's Doing Well'; Part Five: 1997 'The Heirs' & Part Six: 1999-2000 'Goodbye to Schabbach.'

Reitz's chronicle takes up the life of the Simons, principally with Hermann Simon (Henry Arnold) when he meets old flame Clarissa Lichtblau (Salome Kammer) as the Berlin wall falls. Both succesful musicians after their tenure in Munich in the 1960s, they seem bound together (as suggested in The Second Heimat's 'Christmas Wolves'), and decide to find their perfect home in the Hunsruck- returning to Schabbach (which was something prefigured by the final scene of the second series where Hermann entered the village after making a point of leaving). Hermann's half-brothers Ernst and businessman Anton feature heavily, as well as the rest of the family and a burgeoning new set of characters, including Anton's useless son Hartmut, Hermann's daughter Lulu and several characters from the former East Germany and Russia (Galina, Gunnar, Tobi et al)

The episodes are all enjoyable, even if they're not as great as either of the preceding series, and there are a few inconsistencies when watching these after the first two series. There are also a lack of characters from the Second Heimat, only Clarissa and Schasschen survive from that; while the ghost-village scene later on reminds me too much of the end of the first series (where Glassich joins Maria and the other dead of Schabbach). Gripes apart, it remains a great achievement and with Lulu (Nicola Schossler)the continuing story of the Simons' seems to me far from over...