Deutsche treat

>> The Goethe-Institut showcases the best of contemporary German cinema

DEALING WITH THE HOLOCAUST: And Along Come Tourists

by MARK SLUTSKY

For 16 years now, the Goethe-Institut has brought the German Highlights series to Montreal. Part of the Goethe’s mission to promote German culture abroad, the event showcases new and interesting voices in German cinema and is always worth a look if you’re interested in the state of European filmmaking. Many of these films will never make it to video stores, let alone cinemas here, so it’s a rare and valuable chance to check out some Deutsche treats.

The series’ opening film is Robert Thalheim’s interesting And Along Come Tourists. Thalheim wrote the film in collaboration with Bernd Lange and Hans-Christian Schmid, and if you’re a German Highlights follower, you’ll recognize those two as the writer and director, respectively, of last year’s excellent period exorcism drama Requiem.

And Along Come Tourists is set firmly in the present day, but it’s equally about the past. Alexander Fehling stars as Sven, a German kid who chooses to do his compulsory national service at the Auschwitz memorial centre (as apparently Thalheim did). There he’s assigned

to look after Stanislaw (Ryszard Ronczewski), a death camp survivor who never left, and who has spent his life telling his story to strangers. He also befriends Ania (Barbara Wysocki), a native of the nearby town who works as a tour guide.

All three are defined by their relationship to the concentration camp and the Holocaust: the young man as a German, the old man as a victim, and the young woman as the resident of a town that will always be known for one thing. The film develops and explores its themes gently: the drama is satisfying and resolutely in a minor key. For German Highlights’ opening night, Thalheim will be on hand to present the screening and presumably answer questions.

Nine more films round out the series, which runs weekly through the end of May. Marcus Rosenmüller’s Grave Decisions is a playful film about a young boy looking to escape perdition and set his father up with the right woman. Chris Kraus’s Four Minutes, the winner of a bunch of film prizes in Germany, tells the story of a music teacher who mentors a convicted murderer and former piano prodigy.

Daniel Brühl, who made his name over here in Good Bye, Lenin! and who has since appeared in The Bourne Ultimatum, stars in Sebastian Schipper’s A Friend of Mine, playing an uptight mathematician who befriends a reckless colleague (Jürgen Vogel) and falls for his girlfriend (Sabine Timoteo). In Thomas Arslan’s Vacation, an extended family get together in a country house where some dark secrets surface.

There’s a bunch of docs on the slate as well. Pool of Princesses follows a trio of teenage girls living in the hipster Berlin neighbourhood of Kreuzberg. Director Bettina Blümner followed the three young ladies for a year. One Who Set Forth: Wim Wenders’ Early Years chronicles the famed director during the period where, it must be said, he was still making movies worth watching. And the odd Brinkmann’s Wrath is a docu-portrait on the late poet Rolf Dieter Brinkmann which mixes live performances with re-enactments of scenes from his life.

And Along Come Tourists plays in the presence
of director RobertThalheim this Thursday,
April 3, 7 p.m.; for moreinfo about the series,
which runs through May 31, see www.goethe.de/ins/ca/mon/en3087750.htm

>> Movie Listings