Hella Moja starred in the German silent film Nur ein Schmetterling/Only a Butterfly (Iwa Raffay, 1918). Her own film company, Hella-Moja-Film, produced the film. Rotophot published a series of five sepia postcards of the film in their Film Sterne series, which Ivo Blom collected.
German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 543/1. Photo: Hella-Moja-Film. Hella Moja in Nur ein Schmetterling/Only a Butterfly (Iwa Raffay, 1918).
German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 543/2. Photo: Hella-Moja-Film. Hella Moja in Nur ein Schmetterling/Only a Butterfly (Iwa Raffay, 1918).The man sitting is the actor Ernst Hofmann.
German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 543/3. Photo: Hella-Moja-Film. Hella Moja in Nur ein Schmetterling/Only a Butterfly (Iwa Raffay, 1918).
Little is known about Nur ein Schmetterling/Only a Butterfly (Iwa Raffay, 1918). IMDb mentions that Iva (other sources write Iwa) Raffay was both director and scriptwriter and that the cast also included Alfred Abel, Karl Falkenberg, Josef Ewald and Ernst Hofmann. We did not recognise them on the postcards.
Hella Moja was only 22 at the time. Since 1915, she had worked for pioneer studios like Messter, Union and Terra-Film, and had excelled in short silent melodramas like Die weiße Rose/The White Rose (Franz Hofer, 1915) opposite Erna Morena, Der Schwur der Renate Rabenau/The Vow of Renate Rabenau (Otto Rippert, 1916), Der Fremde/The Stranger (Otto Rippert, 1917) with Werner Krauss and Das verwunschene Schloss/The Enchanted Castle (Otto Rippert, 1918) again with Krauss.
In her films, Hella Moja often played a countess or a damsel. With success. There was a Hella Moja serial, and in 1918 she could found her own film company, the Hella Moja Filmgesellschaft, in Berlin. Nur ein Schmetterling was the third production of her film company.
Nur ein Schmetterling was shot at the Eiko Film studios in Berlin. It was the directorial debut of Iwa Raffay The Czech director also scripted the film. The film deals with a female artist (Moja), who follows a rich man (Hofmann) but then learns where true happiness is found.
According to Filmportal, the premiere of the film was probably in August 1918 in the movie palace Marmorhaus at the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, but IMDb mentions that Nur ein Schmetterling already premiered in June 1918. The First World War was still going on and Germany was falling apart at home. Anti-war marches became frequent and morale in the army sank deep. In November 1918, 'the Great War' finally ended.
German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 543/4. Photo: Hella-Moja-Film. Hella Moja in Nur ein Schmetterling/Only a Butterfly (Iwa Raffay, 1918).
German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 543/5. Photo: Hella-Moja-Film. Hella Moja in Nur ein Schmetterling/Only a Butterfly (Iwa Raffay, 1918).
Sources: Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 16 March 2023.
German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 543/1. Photo: Hella-Moja-Film. Hella Moja in Nur ein Schmetterling/Only a Butterfly (Iwa Raffay, 1918).
German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 543/2. Photo: Hella-Moja-Film. Hella Moja in Nur ein Schmetterling/Only a Butterfly (Iwa Raffay, 1918).The man sitting is the actor Ernst Hofmann.
German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 543/3. Photo: Hella-Moja-Film. Hella Moja in Nur ein Schmetterling/Only a Butterfly (Iwa Raffay, 1918).
Countess or Damsel
Little is known about Nur ein Schmetterling/Only a Butterfly (Iwa Raffay, 1918). IMDb mentions that Iva (other sources write Iwa) Raffay was both director and scriptwriter and that the cast also included Alfred Abel, Karl Falkenberg, Josef Ewald and Ernst Hofmann. We did not recognise them on the postcards.
Hella Moja was only 22 at the time. Since 1915, she had worked for pioneer studios like Messter, Union and Terra-Film, and had excelled in short silent melodramas like Die weiße Rose/The White Rose (Franz Hofer, 1915) opposite Erna Morena, Der Schwur der Renate Rabenau/The Vow of Renate Rabenau (Otto Rippert, 1916), Der Fremde/The Stranger (Otto Rippert, 1917) with Werner Krauss and Das verwunschene Schloss/The Enchanted Castle (Otto Rippert, 1918) again with Krauss.
In her films, Hella Moja often played a countess or a damsel. With success. There was a Hella Moja serial, and in 1918 she could found her own film company, the Hella Moja Filmgesellschaft, in Berlin. Nur ein Schmetterling was the third production of her film company.
Nur ein Schmetterling was shot at the Eiko Film studios in Berlin. It was the directorial debut of Iwa Raffay The Czech director also scripted the film. The film deals with a female artist (Moja), who follows a rich man (Hofmann) but then learns where true happiness is found.
According to Filmportal, the premiere of the film was probably in August 1918 in the movie palace Marmorhaus at the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, but IMDb mentions that Nur ein Schmetterling already premiered in June 1918. The First World War was still going on and Germany was falling apart at home. Anti-war marches became frequent and morale in the army sank deep. In November 1918, 'the Great War' finally ended.
German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 543/4. Photo: Hella-Moja-Film. Hella Moja in Nur ein Schmetterling/Only a Butterfly (Iwa Raffay, 1918).
German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 543/5. Photo: Hella-Moja-Film. Hella Moja in Nur ein Schmetterling/Only a Butterfly (Iwa Raffay, 1918).
Sources: Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 16 March 2023.
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