Report: "German Films" by Jerome Cornelius

"What would you like to do your report on?" asked Barbara Owen, our fabulous organiser of the Tübingen/South Africa programme. Naturally I jumped at the chance to report on German films.

Our first taste of German cinema came in the form of an introductory lecture by Ute Link. It was highly informative, especially for me, who admittedly did not know too much about the industry besides films such as "Run Lola Run". Our first screening was at ADAF, our home base in Tübingen, where we had an unexpected change in the programme. As democracies go, I was outvoted and we watched Hannes Stöhr`s "One Day in Europe" (2005). It was quite a relevant film to us as it dealt with different people trying to overcome language barriers. The film is divided into four short films set amidst robberies, against the soccer Champion's League final between Galatasaray Istanbul and Deportivo La Coruña which is taking place in Moscow. It was a good film, humorous and with a great deal of German spoken throughout. However, many of the other South African participants felt that it was not fluid and cohesive enough. The ending could have been neater with more of a link between the four short films, but it was nonetheless entertaining.

Our second film was greeted with a much warmer reception. "Barfuß" (Barefoot) (2005), directed by, and also starring Til Schweiger is a romantic comedy with its message rooted deeply in the healing power love. Schweiger, also known as the German Brad Pitt, had the ladies swooning, but the film also had everyone sighing. It was a feel-good film about a man with no direction who gets fired from his job as a janitor at a mental institution after one day. He meets a mental patient who escapes from the institution, and the two go on a journey together. He helps her liberate herself from her own mind, and she helps him find himself. Needless to say the two fall in love.

Our final film screening was Sönke Wortmann's "Das Wunder von Bern" (The Miracle of Bern) (2003). This was another film that got us, the South Africans, excited about our very own 'Fußball Weltmeisterschaft' this year. In the film, a German man and his family are reunited after he was incarcerated in the Soviet Union for eleven years after World War Two. Tensions run high as they acclimatise to this new situation. Parallel story lines run concurrently to this, with the father and his soccer-mad youngest son ending up at the1954 FIFA World Cup Final in Switzerland. This one had a tense and emotional first act, but ultimately also had a feel-good ending.

What I have realised is that the German film industry, with a few exceptions, is quite like any other in the world. We are more similar than we would like to think, and should think of cinema as a uniting force in the collective human consciousness. Not to mention how much fun they are!

So thank you so much to all the sponsors, Barbara, Tom, Philina, Ute and everyone else for enlightening us with the fabulous films.

Much love
Jerome Cornelius