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The Doll Maker of Kiang-Ning (German: Der Puppenmacher von Kiang-Ning) is a 1923 German silent fantasy film directed by Robert Wiene and starring Werner Krauss, Lia Eibenschütz, and Ossip Runitsch. A doll maker in Kiangning (modern Nanjing), China crafts a puppet which he is convinced is lifelike. He takes it to exhibit at a public event, but is outraged to find an even more convincing and beautiful doll there. It is in fact a real woman pretending to be a doll, but he becomes so obsessed he attempts to steal her and the film ends with her rescue and his tragic death.

The film had its premiere in Berlin in November 1923. It received a universally negative reception from critics who were particularly unimpressed by the attempt to portray Chinese culture using German actors. The film continues a wider theme in the director Robert Wiene's work which contrasts Western and Eastern cultures.

Cast

• Werner Krauss
• Lia Eibenschütz
• Ossip Runitsch
• Lucie Mannheim
• Julius Falkenstein
• Fritz Achterberg
• Hans Schweikart
• Eugen Rex
• Yuri Yurovsky
• Alexander Alexandrowski

References

1. Jung & Schatzberg, p. 104.
2. Jung & Schatzberg, pp. 104–105.

Bibliography

• Jung, Uli; Schatzberg, Walter (1999). Beyond Caligari: The Films of Robert Wiene. New York: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-57181-156-1.

External links

• The Doll Maker of Kiang-Ning at IMDb

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• 1923 films
• Films of the Weimar Republic
• German silent feature films
• German fantasy drama films
• Films directed by Robert Wiene
• Films set in China
• Films with screenplays by Carl Mayer
• German black-and-white films
• 1920s fantasy drama films
• 1923 drama films
• Silent fantasy drama films
• 1920s German films
• Films about dolls
• 1920s German film stubs
• Fantasy film stubs