Berlin Alexanderplatz (film)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title Berlin Alexanderplatz
Country of production Germany , Netherlands
original language German
Publishing year 2020
length 183 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Burhan Qurbani
script Burhan Qurbani,
Martin Behnke
production Leif Alexis ,
Jochen Laube ,
Fabian Maubach
music Dasha Dauenhauer
camera Yoshi Heimrath
cut Philipp Thomas
occupation

Berlin Alexanderplatz is a German-Dutch feature film by Burhan Qurbani from 2020 . The film drama is based freely on the novel of the same name by Alfred Döblin from 1929. The director Qurbani, who also wrote the screenplay for the film together with Martin Behnke , moved the plot to contemporary Berlin .

The story of an illegal African immigrant is told in five chapters and an epilogue , portrayed by Welket Bungué , who after the dangerous crossing over the Mediterranean tries to lead a good and decent life despite all the circumstances.

The world premiere was on February 26, 2020 in the competition at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival . At the presentation of the German Film Prize in the same year, five awards followed, including the film prize in silver for best feature film and Albrecht Schuch for supporting actor . The regular German theatrical release took place on July 16, 2020.

action

First chapter

The 30-year-old Francis from Guinea-Bissau sets off with his lover Ida on the illegal crossing from West Africa to Europe. When the refugee boat gets caught in a storm on the Mediterranean at night and capsizes, he has to push Ida away from him and leave her to certain death by drowning in order to save himself. Francis wakes up as the only survivor on a beach in southern Europe. He swears to God that he will become a decent person from now on.

Francis ended up in Berlin , where he found shelter in a refugee home and signed on with other asylum seekers without papers or work permits at a construction site on Alexanderplatz in Berlin . When a colleague is seriously injured in an accident at work and Francis takes him away from the construction site for safety, he loses his job. His friend Ottu betrays Francis to the foreman in order not to endanger the continued employment of the other illegal workers. The angry Francis then attacks Ottu and seriously injures him. He escapes from the construction site, believing that he killed Ottu. Francis wanders lost through the city at night and gets drunk.

second chapter

After the crime, Francis cannot return to the refugee home. He turned to Reinhold, a German he knew from the home, who had tried to persuade the African residents to deal with drugs in the Hasenheide park . The neurotic Reinhold takes in the good-natured, naive Francis in his apartment and tries to use him for his illegal business. An intense, but also compulsive and destructive friendship develops between the two men. The sex addict and disordered Reinhold unloads the women he rips open and later wants to get rid of with Francis. Francis, in turn, refuses to sell drugs in the park. But he agrees to provide the men in the park with food. He made the acquaintance of Pums, Reinhold's boss, whom he could impress with tips to better motivate the dealers.

Francis, who has meanwhile been "christened" Franz by Reinhold, meets the German-African club owner Eva during a nightly party. They both fall in love. Furthermore, Francis - now Franz - no longer follows Reinhold unconditionally and dares to criticize him. After both of them have participated in a robbery by the drug gang on a jewelry store, Reinhold tries to kill Franz by throwing him out of the moving car while on the run.

third chapter

Franz wakes up in the hospital and is horrified to find that he has lost his left forearm. He refuses to tell Eva the truth that Reinhold and her partner Berta want to put out of circulation. Both bring him to recovery in the apartment of Mieze, who works as a high-class prostitute under the name "Kitty" .

Despite initial differences, Mieze and Franz fall in love. When he threatens to bleed to death, Mieze saves his life. Franz, in turn, takes revenge together with Mieze on a suitor who had stunned them with knockout drops . He soon becomes her pimp and turns down Eva's offer to move to an apartment near her. When Franz Reinhold attacks his apartment, he fails to take revenge on him. Reinhold confesses to Franz that he was jealous of the relationship with Eva and pushed him out of the car.

Chapter Four

Franz returns to Reinhold and is soon supposed to take over the drug business in Hasenheide, which he keeps secret from Mieze. At the same time, he tries to convince his lover to give up her work as a prostitute. Pums begins to prefer Franz to Reinhold. When all three take part in a failed robbery, Reinhold kills Pums. As a confidante, Franz then blackmailed Reinhold. Franz wants to run the drug business equally with him and demands a German passport. As a result, Franz successfully recruited new potential dealers in his old refugee home.

Mieze announced that she was pregnant by Franz. When Reinhold invites you to a big costume party in Eva's club, Franz decides not to take Mieze with him in her condition. Thereupon, out of spite, she meets with a customer who turns out to be Reinhold. To find out more about Franz's past and the accident, she gets involved with Reinhold and they spend a few hours together in a hotel room. Returning to the party, Reinhold presents himself as a big game hunter, while he has chosen the costume of a gorilla for Franz and got him the desired passport. Eva and Berta find Franz's masquerade humiliating. Nevertheless, Eva Franz approaches again.

When Franz Reinhold wanted to introduce Mieze after the party, events came thick and fast. Mieze, who has not been informed of Reinhold's presence in her apartment, suspects that he must be responsible for the misfortune in Franz's past. She wants to leave Berlin with Franz as soon as possible. She also describes Reinhold as a psychopath. The situation escalates. Franz beats Mieze, whereupon she throws both men out of the apartment.

Franz moves back in with Reinhold, who brings prostitutes to him to cheer him up. But Franz can't get over Mieze. He meets with her. But Mieze lets him understand that she can't love his good and bad side at the same time. Then Franz wants to get out of the drug business, but promises Reinhold to remain loyal to him. Reinhold, who feels drawn to Mieze, meets with her to tell her the truth about Franz's accident. Mieze, in turn, wants to buy Franz out. Reinhold takes the heavily pregnant woman on an excursion to show her the refugee home where they both met. Shaken by the conditions there, Mieze flees into the neighboring forest. For a kiss, Reinhold promises to tell her the truth about Franz's accident. After his confession, Reinhold strangles the deeply shocked kitty.

Fifth chapter

Reinhold dismisses Franz from his service. Shortly afterwards, Franz is arrested on suspicion of killing Mieze. In prison he tries to poison himself out of grief and pain. In his cell he is haunted by visions of Reinhold and the people he met on his journey. At the same time, Reinhold has fun intoxicated in a club with two prostitutes. In the maddened fever, the two seem to be connected by an invisible bond. Reinhold confesses to Mieze's murder and tries to kill one of the two women. He is then beaten down by the other prostitute and later arrested by the police.

epilogue

Franz has decided to start all over again. After four years he is released from prison as Francis. Eva picks him up from prison. She is accompanied by Francis' daughter, who survived the assassination attempt by Reinhold in Mieze's womb. Francis finds himself at the fountain on Berlin's Alexanderplatz.

background

While still in the development phase, the film project was funded in 2016 with the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award endowed with 20,000 euros.

Berlin Alexanderplatz was produced by producers Leif Alexis, Jochen Laube and Fabian Maubach and their Sommerhaus Filmproduktion in coproduction with ZDF and in collaboration with Arte . Lemming Film is the Dutch co-producer. The film was funded by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg , the Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg and the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW , by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media , the Film Funding Agency , the German Film Funding Fund , the Netherlands Film Fund, The Netherlands Film Production Incentive and Eurimages . The film was developed with the support of Eurimages and Torino Film Lab. Beta Cinema is responsible for world sales.

Welket Bungué at the Berlinale 2017

The shooting took place from May to July 2018 in Berlin, Wandlitz (Barnim), Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia .

In his first German-language film, the Guinea-Bissau-Portuguese actor Welket Bungué can be seen in the lead role of Francis / Franz. The director Burhan Qurbani originally wanted to cast the role with an amateur actor, an actual drug dealer from Hasenheide. But such an implementation turned out to be too difficult. The film production company then wrote to actors, including Bungué, who Qurbani noticed at the 2017 Berlinale , where he had appeared in the competition film Joaquim . At the time, the actor was working on a play in Rio de Janeiro and recorded a test video with a tablet , for which his German-speaking girlfriend prompted him behind the camera. Qurbani was initially not convinced of Bungué because he found him "too beautiful" for the role. By chance, Bungué spent Christmas with his partner in Berlin and was invited to an audition with Jella Haase and Albrecht Schuch . According to Qurbanis, Schuch also worked towards Bungué's commitment. The figure originally from Nigeria became one from Guinea-Bissau. The actors were asked to write their own background stories about the characters. Bungué wrote his back to the grandparents.

The German theatrical release in the distribution of Entertainment One was originally planned for April 16, 2020. After the worldwide outbreak of the new type of respiratory disease COVID-19 , the film was postponed several times and finally came to German cinemas on July 16, 2020. The first trailer was released on January 29, 2020.

reception

Carolin Ströbele raves about ZeitOnline : “Where should you start with this film? This cosmos of colors, tones, this life and love story that presses you into the cinema seat for three hours. This work, which one can call enormous without exaggeration. (...) Berlin Alexanderplatz is much more than a great actor film and a virtuoso literary film adaptation - it is a parable against racism. Against looking away. And the drama contains a message that one cannot relate to. "

Qurbani integrates these updates into his film, writes Tim Caspar Boehme in the taz , without swinging the didactic index finger: “Instead, it provides a panorama of today's world in miniature from the perspective of the demi-world. And dramatizes his story like a thriller. Because Albrecht Schuch contributes a seriously evil figure as underworld vice-boss Reinhold. This Reinhold is given by Schuch as an uncanny psychopath to the pores. The confusions of Franz Biberkopf, who is not quite right in the head in the novel, are outsourced to Qurbani, in his version Reinhold is Francis' evil alter ego, who seduces him to everything and jealously watches over him. "

Andreas Busche ( Der Tagesspiegel ) speaks of an important film that sometimes wants too much: “To tell Döblin's classic as a story of migration - not a class conflict, but a symbol of a global economic crisis in which the feeling of social alienation from the search for an identity is replaced - sounds just compelling at the beginning of the twenties of the 21st century. ”With Qurbani,“ home ”is a more complicated term than in Döblin's original. In the end, the critic is torn: “Can this be what German cinema looks like in 2020? Yes and no. Qurbani has been since the Lichtenhagen drama “We are young. Wir sind stark ”(2014) a driving force in German film. And a clever, emphatic voice. But in the three-hour “Berlin Alexanderplatz”, his missionary zeal sometimes gets in the way of his narrative power. Now Qurbani is just missing the ease. "

For Rüdiger Suchsland ( SWR2 Kultur aktuell ) the film is a favorite for top awards. For Qurbani, “Döblin's“ Berlin Alexanderplatz ”is a story of the struggle for recognition and dignity. A story of the new Germany that is as multi-cultural as Berlin in the 20s, in which Döblin's novel is set. Qurbani's employees deserve special mention: a young team that shows with a young approach how fresh and dust-free the material is. For example, the film musician Dascha Dauenhauer, the cameraman Yoshi Heimrath. Or the assembly by Phillipp Thomas, who adequately transfers Döblin's assembly technique to the canvas. So this is a very excellent film and a favorite for top awards at this Berlinale. With this work at the latest, Qurbani proves that he is one of the most important filmmakers in contemporary German cinema. "

Andreas Borcholte ( Der Spiegel ) thinks that it is absolutely inspiring that director Qurbani decided not to tell his Berlin Alexanderplatz as a naturalistic social drama, but as an ambivalent parable that is partially abstracted from reality. The main actor Welket Bungué , of all people , does not succeed in becoming the emotional center of the film.

Hannes Klug ( young world ) commented negatively on the clumsy staging and naive presentation of discourses on the subject of racism: "That is what is difficult to bear about this film, which not only warms up cinematic Berlin clichés en masse, but also uses a story of escape Racisms like current white-black discourses are served to the viewer in dialogue form. Francis changes his name, and Reinhold comments: "Francis was his slave name. Now his name is Franz." The words that Francis learns first in German herald of hope: soul, house, sun, day. The film is set almost exclusively at night, and you quickly notice that someone is fighting here who has no means to cope with another world. That is what is actually paternalistic and annoying about this film : "People smugglers, illegal workers, drug dealers, pimps, burglars. How can a person survive so much? Say shame. Scream shame!" The voice declaims from the off. Francis acts with the competence of a big child. Millions of immigrants can do better, but not in this film. "

Awards

Burhan Qurbani competed with Berlin Alexanderplatz for the second time since 2010 for the Golden Bear , the main prize of the Berlinale. At the same time, the film was nominated for the LGBTIQ film prize Teddy Award . Berlin Alexanderplatz , however, did not receive an award at the Berlinale.

When the nominations for the German Film Prize 2020 were announced , Berlin Alexanderplatz led the field of favorites with eleven nominations, but had to admit defeat to Nora Fingscheidts Systemsprenger in the main categories and won five awards:

The film was also nominated in the categories of Best Director (Burhan Qurbani), Best Screenplay (Martin Behnke, Burhan Qurbani), Best Male Leading Role ( Welket Bungué ), Best Female Supporting Role ( Jella Haase ), Best Sound Design ( Simone Galavazi , Michel Schöpping ) as well as best visual effects and animation ( Frank Kaminski ).

In addition, Berlin Alexanderplatz is in the preselection for the European Film Award 2020 .

Web links

Commons : Berlin Alexanderplatz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Berlin Alexanderplatz . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 198035 / K). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ^ Berlin Alexanderplatz . In: berlinale.de (accessed on February 11, 2020).
  3. ↑ Eurimages Co-Production Development Award . In: iffr.com (accessed January 29, 2020).
  4. ↑ Activity report 2017 (pdf). Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, accessed on February 13, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Press release Entertainment One from February 12, 2020.
  6. ↑ Beta Cinema Berlinale 2020 (pdf). Retrieved February 13, 2020 .
  7. ^ Hot shooting in Berlin-Brandenburg's summer of the century. Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg, August 7, 2018, accessed on February 13, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Berlin Alexanderplatz at filmportal.de (accessed on January 29, 2020).
  9. ↑ Fabian Federl: Welket Bungué: From nothing . In: tagesspiegel.de, February 25, 2020 (accessed February 25, 2020).
  10. ↑ Daniel Fabian: masterpiece ineptly "Tenet" -termin: Perhaps the best German film of the year comes early to the cinema In: Screenrush on 17 June 2020 called on 17 June 2020th
  11. ↑ Christoph Petersen: The first trailer for the new "Berlin Alexanderplatz": The remake of one of the classics! . In: filmstarts.de, January 29, 2020 (accessed February 3, 2020).
  12. ↑ Carolin Ströbele: "Berlin Alexanderplatz": I am Germany . In: The time . February 26, 2020, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed February 27, 2020]).
  13. ↑ Tim Caspar Boehme: Remake "Berlin Alexanderplatz": He wants to be a good person . In: The daily newspaper: taz . February 26, 2020, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed February 27, 2020]).
  14. ↑ Andreas Busche: “Berlin Alexanderplatz” follows the condemned of this city. In: Der Tagesspiegel. February 27, 2020, accessed February 27, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Rüdiger Suchsland: Döblin's “Berlin Alexanderplatz” in the 21st Century - Favorite for a Bear? In: SWR2 Kultur aktuell. February 27, 2020, accessed February 27, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Andreas Borcholte: "Berlin Alexanderplatz" at the Berlinale: Cold Potato Heart. In: Der Spiegel. February 26, 2020, accessed July 12, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Scream Shame! July 21, 2020, accessed August 16, 2020 .
  18. ^ The competition of the 70th Berlinale and final selection of the Berlinale Special . In: berlinale.de, January 29, 2020 (accessed January 29, 2020).
  19. ^ Berlin Alexanderplatz . In: teddyaward.tv (accessed on February 11, 2020).
  20. ↑ Prize winners 2020 . In: deutscher-filmpreis.de (accessed April 25, 2020).
  21. ↑ EFA 2020 | EFA Feature Film Selection | Part 1 . In: europeanfilmawards.eu, August 18, 2020 (accessed on August 18, 2020).