Once upon a time in Germany ...
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Once upon a time in Germany ... |
| Country of production | Germany , Belgium , Luxembourg |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2017 |
| length | 102 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Sam Garbarski |
| script | Michel Bergmann |
| production |
Roshanak Behesht Nedjad , Sébastien Delloye , Jani Thiltges |
| music | Renaud Garcia-Fons |
| camera | Virginie Saint-Martin |
| cut | Peter R. Adam |
| occupation | |
| |
Once upon a time in Germany ... is a German film drama by Sam Garbarski from 2017. The film is based on the novels Die Teilacher and Machloikes by Michel Bergmann , who worked on the script. On Good Friday, April 19, 2019, ZDF broadcast the film on television for the first time.
action
Jewish survivors of the Holocaust lived in a camp near Frankfurt in 1946 , among them David Bermann and his friends. They all want to emigrate to the USA as quickly as possible, but they have little or no money. Bermann, the last living member of the family who once owned a renowned Frankfurt textile department store, wants to get back into the textile trade, but the American occupation authorities refuse him the necessary business license. So the company is registered in the name of his friend Fajnbrot. Together with his group, he travels through the area as a sales representative and sells German families "trousseau packages" containing towels, bedcloths and tablecloths. In order to sell their goods, the friends use all kinds of lies.
Business is going well, but David Bermann is summoned to the occupation authorities, where he is supposed to justify allegations of having collaborated with the Nazis. He is interrogated by the young agent Sara Simon, who comes from a Jewish family who emigrated to the USA from Germany. In several meetings, Bermann reports that he told a joke in the concentration camp and that Obersturmbannführer Otte had him entertain the concentration camp guards at the Christmas party. Then he was supposed to prepare the “Führer” Adolf Hitler for a meeting with Mussolini . Bermann is supposed to teach jokes to the humorless Hitler. Bermann is dressed in new clothes and brought to Obersalzberg with a false (German) identity , but there is no meeting with Hitler. Bermann wanted to murder Hitler with a kitchen knife that he had already obtained from the housekeeper Fanny Huber. But when Bermann also has a bicycle, he flees and waits for the Americans to liberate Bavaria.
His friends and business colleagues become suspicious of his frequent absence and Bermann tells them he has a chicse .
All of his friends have suffered blows of fate. Family members have died in concentration camps and they themselves have been mistreated. Bermann's parents and brothers also died in the concentration camp. One of the friends lost an eye when he was beaten up by a Nazi. Another thinks he recognized his tormentor in a newspaper seller. That's why they set fire to the kiosk at night as "Jewish revenge" . The next day the newspaper reported that the fire had killed an innocent man. Then Bermann's friend hangs himself up. Shortly afterwards it turns out that the SS-Scharführer had assumed the identity of one of his victims.
Sara Simon tends to believe Bermann; but she wants certainty. She has Obersturmbannführer Otte brought in and confronts him with Bermann. This is upset and rushes at Otte, but Otte previously confirmed that Bermann had told jokes in the camp.
The following day, Sara visits Simon Bermann at his company and tells him that he is no longer suspected of collaborating . He is surprised that he - as a Jewish victim of the Nazi rule - is first accused and then exonerated by a Nazi. In addition, after the time-consuming interrogation he hardly knows what to do with his days. The erotic tension between Bermann and Sara Simon, which has already built up during the interrogation, finds a temporary climax in a kissing scene. Later the two sleep together. When they lie together afterwards, Sara wants to find out what really happened. David cries and says he is "the clown who murdered his brothers". Sara takes him in her arms.
Some time later they all emigrated to America. Only David Bermann has reopened his parents' magnificent textile shop in Frankfurt.
background
The film was shot under the working title Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland in April and May 2016 in Germany and Luxembourg. The street scenes in the rubble mountains of bombed Frankfurt am Main were created in Nordstrasse and adjacent streets in Weißenfels . In Görlitz , the former Jewish Totschek department store in Steinstrasse served as the backdrop for the Bermann brothers' department store. In Gera , photos were taken at the East Cemetery, among other places. Filming also took place in Saalfeld .
The premiere took place as part of the Berlinale Special at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival on February 10, 2017.
Reviews
"Once upon a time in Germany ... is rousing, touching, credible and completely different from what was to be feared: just not a cautious, fearful German film with miserable Yiddish 'speaking' actors, but the sovereign and loving confrontation of the second generation with the story of their parents who wanted to leave and could not escape the past. "
“The two stories of 'Once upon a time in Germany', the Rat-Pack-like clumsy business dealings and the 'Life is beautiful' far-off fairy tales, are alternately distributed over the length of the film, like possession of the ball between Austria and the BRD in the legendary shame of Gijon at the 1982 Football World Cup - and Algeria, which is looking down the tube in the agreed non-aggression pact between the two teams, is the audience here that is bored to death. "
“If the almost completely successful film, thanks to its clever stories and wonderful dialogues, has a weakness at all, then it's the episodic narrative: Gabarski follows one event after another. [...] But even if the connection didn't work out smoothly: The outstandingly good acting alone easily makes up for it. "
The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.
Web links
- Once upon a time in Germany ... in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Once upon a time in Germany ... at filmportal.de (with trailer and photo gallery)
- Once upon a time in Germany ... atRotten Tomatoes(English)
- Website for the film
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Once upon a time in Germany… . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; March 2017; test number: 166 303 K).
- ^ A b Tilmann P. Gangloff: TV tip: "Once upon a time in Germany ..." (ZDF). In: evangelisch.de. Joint work of Evangelical Journalism , April 19, 2019, accessed on April 21, 2019 : “Films like Roberto Benigni's deep black concentration camp comedy“ Life is beautiful ”are apparently not dare to German directors; or they do not receive any funding. "Once upon a time in Germany ..." comes very close to the matter. "
- ^ A b Andrea Hamann-Richter: Weißenfels becomes a film set: Will Moritz Bleibtreu come to town? Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, May 4, 2016, accessed on May 10, 2017 .
- ^ Jan Iver: Film shoot: Moritz Bleibtreu and Weißenfels for the post-war period. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, May 12, 2016, accessed on May 10, 2017 .
- ^ Görlitz as a backdrop for Moritz Bleibtreu. Lausitzer Rundschau, April 29, 2016, accessed on May 10, 2017 .
- Jump up the next: Moritz Bleibtreu in Görlitz. Sächsische Zeitung, May 4, 2016, accessed on May 12, 2017 .
- ↑ Marcel Hilbert: Geraer Ostfriedhof becomes the setting for a film with Moritz Bleibtreu. Ostthüringer Zeitung, May 10, 2016, accessed on May 10, 2017 .
- ^ A b Moritz Bleibtreu in the film adaptation of Michel Bergmann's novel "Die Teilacher". In: Culture. Jüdische Allgemeine , February 13, 2017, retrieved on April 21, 2019 : “Has anyone applauded? Yes. For minutes and vigorously and rightly. Once upon a time in Germany ... by Sam Garbarski is the highlight of the 67th International Film Festival. Last Friday the film celebrated its world premiere in the "Berlinale Special Gala" series in the Friedrichstadt-Palast. "
- ↑ Matthias Dell: historical drama "Once upon a time in Germany". Rat Pack in Yiddish. In: Culture. Spiegel Online, April 6, 2017, accessed April 21, 2019 .
- ↑ Once upon a time in Germany ... In: Filmbewertungsstelle. Retrieved May 15, 2020 .