“The film reveals the alienation that displaced individuals feel in their replacement Heimat, the large conurbation of prefabricated tower blocks that are here unmistakably linked with the state’s urban planning policies. […] The film reminds the modern-day viewer that the regime’s efforts to foster an attachment to a GDR-Heimat were as un-successful as were its attempts to deny the population their inveterate Germanness.”   —Nick Hodgin, Screening the East: Memory and Nostalgia in German Film since 1989

“At the studio approval screening, officials confronted the DEFA film crew with the apprehension that Memories of a Landscape might perhaps be too depressing, because it paints an unvarnished picture of displacement and the loss of homeland. Director Kurt Tetzlaff argued in response that to him, in this case, demolition always also means a new start.” —rs, Zeughauskino, Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin

“By 1989, the GDR had reached a production rate of 300 million tons of coal per year, a worldwide that has not been beaten to this day. This made an enormous impact on the cultural landscape south of Leipzig as well. Until the mid-1970s, “only” smaller towns were affected; but from 1977 to 1981 and 1984 to 1986, respectively, it was the end for Magdeborn (Espenhain coal mine) and Eythra/Bösdorf (Zwenkau coal mine), both towns of around 3,000 inhabitants. In the midst of these developments, a remarkable documentary, especially for the time, was created. Over years, director Kurt Tetzlaff accompanied these two towns through their downfall. He shows the painful separation of people from their familiar places, which will vanish. The film is a document of social changes that is dedicated to Manuela, the last child born in Magdeborn, in memory of her ancestors’ landscape.”   —globale-Leipzig.de