Heimat (film series)

Heimat is a series of films written and directed by Edgar Reitz about life in Germany from the 1840s to 2000 through the eyes of a family from the Hunsrück area of the Rhineland-Palatinate. The family's personal and domestic life is set against the backdrop of wider social and political events. The combined length of the 5 films — broken into 32 episodes — is 59 hours and 32 minutes, making it one of the longest series of feature-length films in cinema history.

The title Heimat (pronounced [ˈhaɪmaːt]) is a German word, often translated as "homeland" or "home place", but it has been alleged that the word has no true English equivalent. Usage has come to include that of an ironic reference to the film genre known as Heimatfilm which was popular in Germany in the 1950s. Heimat films were characterised by rural settings, sentimental tone and simplistic morality.

Aesthetically, the series is notable for the frequent switching between colour and black-and-white film to convey different emotional states. In 1987 it won a BAFTA for "Foreign Television Programme".

The first "Heimat" film covered the years 1918 to 1982, and was released in 1984. It was followed by "Die Zweite Heimat" in 1993 that is set during the 1960s. In 2003, a direct sequel to both was released, with lead actors from both films returning as their characters. In 2006 a film was created by editing unused footage and outtakes together, along with newly filmed material to produce, "Heimat Fragments". A prequel film to the original was released in 2013.