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Helen M Jerome reviews
What a glorious period for German film right now the cream of which was on show at this years festival at the Curzon Soho Cinema in London. It seems as if each wave of filmmakers is further exploring their history not just revisiting their past, but teasing out the truth, challenging accepted views, and exorcising their ghosts. But dont just take my word for it; go out and see these films in 2010, when they should be hitting UK screens.
Once again, the quality of the acting and the vision of the directors is remarkable. Inevitably, the key periods that pull in both talent and audiences again and again are the division of Germany into East and West, and World War 2. But there are also contemporary and 19th Century love stories, insightful films about the Baader-Meinhof Gang, and a recent, little-known cult that flourished in Pinochets Chile.
Spooling through the incredible talent on show, its also remarkable that nearly all the best performances here come from women. The veracity and intensity of their acting is something to behold, virtually breaking through the fourth wall and really connecting with the audience. And about time too!
Far and away my favourite film of the entire festival was PEACEFUL TIMES (right). On paper it sounds slight: a family struggling to come to terms with their past and present in West Germany in 1968. But it surges to life and gains momentum through the central performances of the dysfunctional parents, portrayed by Katharina M. Schubert and Oliver Stokowski, and most notably through their simply wonderful young daughters, Ute and Wasa, played by Nina Monka and Leonie Brill. Mum is missing home, back in East Germany, suspects her husband of infidelity, is constantly on the edge of a nervous breakdown, and is convinced shell die young. But the kids make it their mission to keep her going, taking desperate measures, contriving situations and basically taking control. Director Neele Leana Vollmar captures the spirit of the times, the black humour, uncertainty and naivety, in this remarkable film, which manages to feel nostalgic and optimistic even as every little thing seems insurmountable. Highly recommended.
That much-maligned form, the docu-drama, is given the kiss of life in THE MIRACLE OF LEIPZIG (right). Co-directed by Matthias Schmidt and Sebastian Dehnhardt, this powerful film feels like a thriller, yet there is genuine jeopardy for all concerned, as it recreates the events of autumn 1989, when East German citizens in their thousands bravely started a peaceful revolution for democracy and freedom. Schmidt himself was a student in Leipzig at the time, an eyewitness who finally plucked up the courage to take part one week after the main march. And he now wants to show exactly how Leipzig started the action that climaxed with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Of course, the main drawbacks are the lack of footage shot at the time, and the number of people who refuse to talk about their experiences either because they feel its been talked about enough, or they dont want to out themselves if they were on the wrong side. So, the other miracle is that Schmidt and Dehnhardt were able to make the film at all, let alone fashion something that genuinely deepens our knowledge of these events.
Another documentary that throws light on lesser-known characters and events is GERMAN SOULS, about the Colonia Dignidad commune set up in Chile by a group of Germans. Coolly and matter-of-factly, the filmmakers let the interviewees tell their own story in their own time. Which makes the whole thing even more shocking as the horror reveals itself, for this commune allowed sect leader Paul Schaefer and his followers to literally get away with murder. Sheltered by Pinochets regime and the tacit complicity of mothers and fathers, this so-called Christian sect also carried out systematic torture and child abuse, which left the now-adult offspring irreparably damaged and childlike, and the perpetrators unrepentant. Not only does the film succeed in exploring the phenomenon of people going to build a better world and it all going so wrong, but also it also shows how utterly mundane monsters can be.
In these heady sporting days of fallen idols, of openly cheating for your country like Thierry Hooray Henry, and of questions of sexual identity like Caster Semenya, its extraordinary that one film has come along to tackle all these topics. BERLIN 36 (right) is a ripping good yarn, but is also, quite incredibly, true as a reveal in the final minutes proves. In the 1930s one German athlete, Gretel Bergmann (the brilliant Karoline Herfurth) seems guaranteed an Olympic gold medal for her unprecedented feats at high-jumping. Shes beating all-comers in the years and months preceding the event. Only trouble is, the Olympics are taking place in Berlin, Hitler is Chancellor, and Bergmann is Jewish. There is simply no way she can be allowed to triumph over Aryans, yet there is a very real risk that Team USA wont turn up if she isnt in the German squad. So the compromise is that Bergmann will train alongside the other German athletes (at least until the Yanks set sail for Europe), and meanwhile theyll find someone anyone who can defeat Bergmann by any means possible. Cue the large-limbed, husky-voiced Marie (Sebastian Urzendowsky) who lacks technique, but has the physique. So who wins? Its compelling stuff, and apparently the director, Kaspar Heidelbach, is tackling Munich 72 next
The versatile Urzendowsky also turns up as a young soldier in A WOMAN IN BERLIN, another true story which has been hushed up. Quite literally a sensation when it was published, the book on which this film is based was written by an anonymous woman who documented the rape of German women by Red Army soldiers at the end of the Second World War again and again and again. Harrowing and brutal throughout, but with the tiny flicker of hope at its heart that must have kept these women going, this is not an easy watch. But its a story that needs to be told, and features a staggeringly moving performance by Nina Hoss as the woman.
Yet another true story, also set in the same era, is JOHN RABE. If this had been released at any other time, it would have seemed an amazing, revelatory drama about the Nanking Massacre, when the Imperial Japanese Army invaded China, and the courageous, good German Rabe (Ulrich Tukur) tried to protect the Chinese civilians. And of course, it still is a remarkable portrait of a man trying to push back a tide of aggression (with supporting turns from Daniel Bruhl and Steve Buscemi). But this film is unlucky enough to emerge at precisely the same time as CITY OF LIFE, CITY OF DEATH, the Chinese epic that is destined to be a modern classic, and covers the same story from different perspectives, all shot in ravishingly beautiful black and white.
Most recently the subject of last years BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX, the infamous terrorist gang known in Germany as the Red Army Faction (or RAF) is once more examined in LONG SHADOWS. Loosely based on the experiences of an ex-gang member when he was released from prison, this is a clever, psychological drama that shows the after effects of violent acts on both sides: the traumatised families of the victims and the relatives of the RAF perpetrators. Filmed in bleached-out colours, this is a controversial movie that many felt shouldnt have been made at all, but the director, Connie Walther, stuck to her task for ten years, and has created a credible fiction.
Also based on a true story, but taking a romantic approach, SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT (right) focuses on innocents abroad; young German backpackers who seem to be skating over the surface of life as they chill out in the gritty reality of Cambodia. Then everything changes when David Kross (from The Reader) falls in love with a young girl used to selling her body to keep her family afloat (Apinya Sakuljaroensuk). But will their passion survive and can she stay faithful when he returns to Germany?
EFFI BRIEST (right) is another love story with a twist; a costume drama complete with corsets, horse-drawn carriages and moral double-standards. Its the end of the 19th Century, the world is changing, but its still hard to be a young woman, especially if youre pushed into an arranged marriage with the man (Sebastian Koch from The Lives of Others) your mum used to fancy. No one could blame the titular heroine (superbly played by Julia Jentsch) for having a fling with a young man in breeches. This is the latest adaptation of Theodor Fontanes novel, most famously filmed by Fassbinder, and is pretty faithful to the book, except at its conclusion. Already a rattling good tale, director Hermine Huntgeburth has elevated it into a deeper, psychological study of Effi, which may throw some Fontane fans and purists, but, as Huntgeburth says, the film has to be alive, not just the book with pictures.
Two further explorations of romance, EVERYONE ELSE and LULU & JIMI, are not quite as successful in their depth and achievement. But they both get high marks for effort. EVERYONE ELSE is spare and realistic in approach, focusing on a couple whose passion is getting stale; poised between love and hate. LULU & JIMI goes to the other extreme, highly stylised, featuring fifties colours, sudden detours into song, a deeply, darkly dysfunctional family, and a David Lynch-y, absurd narrative. Neither film is quite there, but both are promising.
Also showing huge promise are the new talents in NEXT GENERATION, the festivals imaginative programme of Germanys best new short films. Its an eclectic selection, and also a good place to spot names for the future. So its worth looking out for: Lennart Ruff, maker of the tense mini-drama, No Special Incidents; Jan Speckenbach for the bizarrely wonderful Sparrow, and Tim Bollinger for Between; Julia C Kaiser for the accelerated love story Amoklove; and Hannes Burchert for the delightfully simple Schneezeit, in which nothing much happens in the middle of nowhere.
Finally though, if you want to see a bonafide hit film about a bonafide, larger-than-life star who lived through the 20th Century events that shaped Germany, then HILDE (right) is the movie. Starring Heike Makatsch in the title role, this is the story of actress and singer, Hildegard Knef, who starts her extraordinary career in the midst of the Second World War making propaganda films. She briefly becomes a soldier to stay with her man at the close of the war, then claws her way to the very top despite dodgy liaisons and scandals, an unsuccessful marriage and a frustrating time in Hollywood. Makatsch is remarkable throughout, and shes matched by Dan Stevens (star of The Line Of Beauty), playing her British second husband David Cameron but not that one, of course. This highly glamorous tale of a survivor is neatly summed up by Hildes mantra: Alles Oder Nichts All or Nothing
Last word, however, goes to the celebrated director Andres Veiel, subject of a festival retrospective. When asked how he manages with limited funds for his films, Veiel simply replied: “You have to learn to order Pizza Margherita rather than Pizza Marinara!”
TOP FIVE FESTIVAL FILMS
PEACEFUL TIMES
BERLIN 36
HILDE
MIRACLE OF LEIPZIG
EFFI BRIEST
TOP NINE FESTIVAL PERFORMANCES
NINA HOSS (A Woman in Berlin, right)
JULIA JENTSCH (Effi Briest)
HEIKE MAKATSCH (Hilde)
NINA MONKA, LEONI BRILL, KATHARINA M SCHUBERT and OLIVER STOKOWSKI (Peaceful Times)
KAROLINE HERFURTH (her second year running) and SEBASTIAN URZENDOWSKY (Berlin 36)
Check out the official German Film Festival website at: Germanfilmfestival.co.uk
Review copyright © Helen M Jerome 2009.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.