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Paul Dessau: Let’s hope for the best is an hour-long documentary about the life and musical career of the German composer Paul Dessau.

Background
He is a soldier and a prodigy on the violin. Later, he pens operettas and creates theatre and film music for Leni Riefenstahl, Bertolt Brecht and Walt Disney. He lives variously in Germany, France and the USA, and after the Second World War moves to the GDR as a committed communist. There, he is celebrated as a composer but finds himself in conflict with the authorities. Pendulum-like, his life swings between West and East, between capitalism and communism. The remarkable and glittering life of Paul Dessau is more than a good story – it cries out for the medium of film. It traces a life in which the ever-shifting history of the two Germanys through the 20th century is viewed as if under a magnifying glass. It is an encounter with an exceptional man and his music: A non-conformist personality, whose character could be tremendously affectionate, laconic and funny, as well as edgy, gnarled and uncompromising – just as his sound cosmos. The documentary by Anne-Kathrin Peitz

treads on unexplored cinematic territory, since this is the first thorough portrait of the German composer Paul Dessau.

Production and documentary
Most of the Peitz' on-location cinematography was done in Germany with filming completed on June 2022 in Leipzig, Germany at the Mendelssohn House, Leipzig. Editing and final credits were completed at the end of December 2022 in Leipzig, Germany. Post-production color processing was completed at Trickkiste Studios.

Critical reception and professional ratings
German Record Critics’ Prize, Quarterly Critic’s Choice, 2023 Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik

https://www.schallplattenkritik.de/en/quarterly-critics-choice/long-list/long-list-4-2023