London, 1856. Karl Marx, called "Moor" by his family and friends, is living in exile in the English capital. While taking a stroll on the outskirts of the city, he meets the 13-year-old child laborer Joe and Joe's sister, Becky. Joe has to work twelve hours a day, with no prospect of improving his situation, in a spinning factory – and even works nightshifts, although it is prohibited by law for children to work throughout the entire night. Joe's brother Billy, the oldest and apparently most cunning, believes to have figured out how to take advantage of the factory's exploitation: he and his group of sidekicks, the Raven Gang, steal or even commit break-ins. One night, Marx shows up with an inspector at Billy's workplace at the spinning factory so as to demand for and enforce the rights of the children. He encourages the children working the nightshift to talk about their situation. Shortly thereafter, the factory owner and his foreman attempt to pin the blame of a theft committed by the Raven Gang on the rebellious children and women. Marx goes to bat for them and even confronts the Raven Gang. He convinces the gang of the futility of their actions, and reveals the possibilities that transformative acts can achieve. When a strike is undertaken at the factory, the boys of the Raven Gang are part of it.
Reviews, recommendations, and director statements
"One sees a highly unspectacular Karl Marx. For example, when he has to cook for his ill family and doesn't exactly reveal himself as skilled at cutting onions. Alfred Müller (the actor playing Karl Marx) knows how to make Marx's strength of character, his sense of justice, visible in many such commonplace activities."
(Volksstimme [People's Voice], Vienna], 18.10.1969)
"MOOR AND THE RAVENS OF LONDON (1969), a film for children. It features the first portrayal of Karl Marx on film. (Lev Kulidzhanov would later make a multi-episode mini-series about Marx for Soviet television.) Dziuba's approach to the historical-biographical film is by definition influenced by Mikhail Romm and his films LENIN IN OCTOBER (1937) and LENIN IN 1918 (1939): 'At no point does Romm put Lenin on a pedestal. Decisions are made or feelings develop from the scenic detail.' Dziuba's approach also attempts to represent an entire life in a small detail, in a drop. It is something that I really enjoy. We wanted to take Marx off the pedestal, make him tangible, close, understandable."
(From: Ulrike Odenwald: Familienalbum [Family Album]. Pub: Trafo Wissenschaftsverlag 2010, p. 329ff.)
"In hindsight one could construct something like a logical consistency in specific themes and design principles, but it all started so much simpler. While I was assistant director on Frank Beyer's CARBIDE AND SORREL, I had to intensively deal with a child. It went well. So the later offer to direct MOOR AND THE RAVENS OF LONDON didn't particularly scare me. Attraction and coincidence came together. Specific affinities began to develop. […] Continuities came into being. Variations of consistent interpretations."
(Helmut Dziuba: Ich verstecke meine Gefühle nicht [I don't hide my emotions]. In: Sonntag, 23.03.1986)
"After the screening, you will undoubtedly say: a great film that also makes us more intelligent and knowledgeable."
(Filmspiegel/Kinderspiegel, March 1969)
