The Black Face (1921) - Franz Osten

The Gosfilmofond of Russia has identified a silent film starring Bulgarian opera singer and actress Mara Chukleva. In the GFF catalogue, the German drama ‘Black Face’ (1921) was for many years listed under the Soviet distribution title ‘Marietta's Debut’. Three things made identification difficult: the film was stored on a counter-type film (i.e. only the negative image), the Soviet distribution version was shortened and slightly re-mounted, and the names of some of the characters were changed. However, in 2023, this film material was correctly attributed by GFF researcher Tamara Shvediuk.

During the silent film era, Mara Chukleva was perhaps the most famous actress of Bulgarian origin. Success came to her in Italy during the heyday of Italian silent cinema, later the actress worked in Germany, where she starred in the film directed by Franz Osten ‘Black Face’. It is a curious fact that Chukleva, in particular, starred in one of the chapters of the Italian peplum ‘Holy Bible’ (1920), a fragment of this large-scale film, the story of King Solomon, has also recently been identified in the GFF. The life of Mara Chukleva was quite difficult, but long. Her final film work was a small role with Federico Fellini himself in ‘City of Women’ in 1980.

The discovered material has been digitised and reconstructed.

Enjoy the film!