Sadly, there was no day 7. Blame it on general inability to overcome obstacles in life. If I can get any more general and cryptic…
Der Aufenthalt
German Democratic Republic 1983, Frank Beyer, 102?
It is the summer of 1945. At a train station in Warsaw, literally moments before being loaded onto a train back to Germany, Mark Niebuhr, who has only been a German soldier for sixth months and is as innocent as you can be in this situation, gets falsely recognised by a Polish woman as the soldier who murdered her daughter. He is taken to a Polish prison where he is at first mistreated and made to do the most dangerous work around, but he tries to adapt to it and please his guards so his conditions slowly improve, but then he breaks his arm and is moved into a cell with other Germans. At first, this looks like an improvement, but in reality this is where his ordeal really starts.
I am highly impressed. With this kind of story it is very hard not to cross the thin line between presenting the reality of a deeply scarred and understandably resentful Polish people and self-pitying the Germans who got their more than fair share of hate and distrust after the war. Beyer and Kohlhaase, who wrote the script based on a POW’s novel about his own experience, succeed very well in showing the terror of being falsely accused by people who seemingly are only interested in indiscriminate vengeance, while still managing to show that these were normal people, even in their harsh reactions. Mark’s polish guard for example, treats him like a human being and while he is hard on him, he rewards Mark’s attempts at obeying him and treats him like a regular prisoner, the actual mistreatment is only done by the political officers.
Where the film really shines however, is the second part: The Germans in his new cell, ranging from a Wehrmacht general, Gestapo officer and regular criminals to a Dutch gardener who insists that while he was in Auschwitz he was only responsible for the tulips, are the really bad people. All of them deny that they did something wrong. The more prominent ones, with a law background even discuss how shooting hostages was a perfectly fine thing to do and are outraged how anyone could see this as a crime in times of war. The cell is basically fascist Germany en miniature and through this concentration it is even worse. A highly interesting movie on a very controversial time and subject, I heartily recommend it to anyone who knows at least a bit about the situation back then.
Fin (The End)
Spain 2010, Luis Sampieri, 89?
Three kids who met online get together to go on something that looks like a hiking trip. Of course we know it’s nothing like that…
Spanish-speaking films this year don’t like me. Or the other way round. I was so glad, when they finally died! This was such an unbelievably boring exercise in drawn-out, unnecessarily long mood shots that delivered no mood at all, so devoid af any action and just infuriating instead of creating understanding for the characters that I just don’t know how this could get invited to the Berlinale. It lacks everything a slow-paced mood-shot movie needs to have to make itself interesting. Even the cinematography was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, if it were you could at least call it an exercise in style. Right now it’s an exercise in wasting: Their money and my money, their time and my time.