Perspektive Deutsches Kino ­ Intelligenz und Unterhaltung

»We are looking for films that are both intelligent and entertaining,« said Alfred Holighaus, the program director of the Perspektive Deutsches Kino. Now in its second year at the Berlinale, the Perspektive has become one of the pillars of the festival. That »Alfred’s Motto« ­ Kunst plus Kommerz ­ has proven effective beyond expectations is evident in the crowds storming the gates for each screening ­ indeed, some films had to be rescheduled for a third time to accommodate disappointed audiences.
       Take Norbert Baumgarten’s Befreite Zone (Liberated Zone), for example. The focus of the satirical sketch set during the 1990s in a small provincial town somewhere in eastern Germany (formerly the GDR) is on »Blondi« ­ the nickname for a triumphant soccer player, who isn’t blonde at all. Rather, since he comes from Nigeria, he should be tagged »Black Bomber« ­ for he has singlehandedly kicked his soccer team to one victory after another in the German Soccer Cup Games. So this backwater town of Sässlen is worth something after all! The fans see chances of winning the national cup, the everyday spins out of orbit, the entire country now knows where Sässlen is ... as the day of the big game approaches.

        Land Brandenburg has become a favorite location for German filmmakers. In the first place, there’s Barbara and Winfried Junge’s Die Kinder von Golzow, an ongoing chronicle of children in a first grade school class that began back in 1961, is still being filmed in and around the town of Golzow/Oderbruch near the Oder River and the border to Poland. Their latest chapter in this long-time documentation making world film history, Eigentlich wollte ich Förster werden ­ Bernd aus Golzow (Actually I Wanted to Be a Forester - Bernd from Golzow), was programmed in the International Forum of Young Cinema at the Berlinale. The same German-Polish border on the Oder River is the setting for five interlinked stories on the human condition in Hans-Christian Schmid’s feature film Lichter (Distant Lights), selected for the Competition at the Berlinale. Andreas Dresen’s award-winning Halbe Treppe (Grill Point), seen at last year’s Berlinale, was also set in Frankfurt/Oder.
        Martina Döcker’s documentary Bernau liegt am Meer (Think German!), programmed in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino, is set in the provincial Brandenburg town of Bernau just to the northeast of Berlin. A breeding-ground for young right wing radicals, it’s the hometown of 21-year-old Daniel, who is seeking a way out of the vicious circle of hate and violence. Andreas Dresen’s documentary Herr Wichmann von der CDU, programmed in the Panorama, follows a politician on his rounds through the same Uckermark area during the national elections last autumn. And it should be noted that Jo Beier’s Der Laden (The Shop) (1998), a three-part telefeature adapted from Erwin Strittmatter’s novel, was shot in the village of Roddan in the Prignitz area of Land Brandenburg.

        Another Perspektive hit was Stefan Krohmer’s Sie haben Knut (They've Got Knut). A precise study of a 1980s milieu ­ Krohmer himself was born in 1971 ­ this »ensemble film« impresses with its authenticity. In effect, They've Got Knut accurately describes the end of the »political generation« and the beginning of the »golf generation« to follow: the good life, the fun clubs, the commune hedonists. Set in a ski-lodge in Allgäu, the mountains of Bavaria, we meet Ingo and Nadja, a young couple, who came there to »cuddle« and put their »relationship« back in order. Forget it! In march noisy young friends ­ to ski and party.
       Only Knut is missing. »Sie haben Knut« ­ meaning he was probably arrested by the police during a demonstration! So what to do? Should they take a political stance? Or should they just going skiing? Krohmer deftly sketches each individual type from both a comical and sympathetic side. We meet in particular a single mother and a single father, both of whom have brought their young sons with them. One is real brat, a bit of a sadist out to tease the local farm animals. Finally, Knut does shows up ­ he hadn’t arrested after all. This neatly composed film packed with nuances and insights was photographed by Benedikt Neuenfels, a gifted cameraman with an eye for breathtaking snow-capped landscape.

        Martin Gypkens’s Wir (We) is another ensemble film about the passing of the »feel good« decade. As the times become more serious, so too the themes. We is a sociocritical statement without raising an accusing finger. The »We-Group« consists of 20- to 25-year-olds, erstwhile students, artsy types, and provincial bumpkins ­ all in »New Berlin« to live it up in grand style. Generally speaking, they are not the least interested in politics, nor are they running after the easy Euro. Of course, it’s summer ­ naturally, we find ourselves in hip Prenzlauer Berg. Sommer in Berlin ­ ist wie Frühling in Wien ­ ist wie Winter in Bayern - ist den ganzen Tag feiern.
       Banal, but true ­ the »lifestyle« is what counts. Accept a job now and then, take drugs when it fits the occasion, switch courses on a whim at the university, make a movie on the side, start a computer club, whatever ­ so long as it’s fun and authentic. Everyone seeks his or her own private pleasure. But conflicts are inevitable and just below the surface lurks fear for the future. Although youth is not an end in itself, why bother to give it much thought. After all, this is 1996. This clear, precise generation-portrait of a clique was made in collaboration with graduates of the Ernst-Busch-Schauspielschule, with young faces of actors ready to test their talent. When there’s so much freedom and so little vision, when everyone is an egoist and hardly thinks of the other, the affair is bound to lead to a tragedy... The comely blonde in the clique dies in a car accident. Wir was awarded the Film Grant Prize at the Max Ophüls Festival in Saarbrücken.

Dorothea Moritz