Waltz & Brühl go bad, Ganz does good: New German Films

delving deeper into German history with “Nebel im August“ (“Fog in August”), after the novel by Thomas Domes. Germany, 1942: The Nazis‘ euthanasia program runs rampant. 13-year-old Ernst Lossa, son of travellers, gets separated from his family and caught up in the institutionalised race ideology of the Nazis. The film stars Sebastian Koch (“The Lives of Others”), Fritzi Haberlandt, and David Bennent.

Florian Gallenberger (“John Raabe”) travels to recent South American history with “Colonia Dignidad”, starring Emma Watson and Daniel Brühl. During the Chilean coup of 1973, the masses are out on the street, protesting against General Pinochet. Amongst them, Daniel and Lena, a young German couple who, like many others, get arrested by Pinochet's secret police. Vanity Fair is already getting excited about Watson’s alleged German accent and mean right hook. Out September 2015.

Oskar Roehler (“Elementary Particles”) has already finished filming his latest movie, but has not yet announced a release date. “Tod den Hippies, es lebe der Punk“ – “Death to Hippies, long live Punk“ -- has angry young men Tom Schilling and Wilson Gonzalez Ochsenknecht celebrating what West Berlin in the 1980s became famous for: sex, drugs, love, and punk.

10 years after "The Downfall" (and a year after his Naomi Watts-starring biopic "Diana"), Oliver Hirschbiegel returns to Germany and German history with "Elser", the story of carpenter Georg Elser, whose 1939 Munich assassination attempt against Hitler failed. The film's producers stress that it "isn't another 'WW2 pic'. Elser didn't join the resistance or distributed leaflets. He made a direct attack on the system's leadership -- and we are interested in the why, in the tragedy of his failure, not in the thrill of the 'ticking bomb.'"
Before his execution in Dachau Elser allegedly said: "Hitler meant the downfall of Germany."

The most exciting directorial announcements come from TV land. As previously mentioned, Tom Tykwer is working on the series “Berlin Babylon“, a German ARD & UK Sky co-production due December 2016. The series is based on the popular historical books around police detective Gereon Rath, who arrives in 1920s Berlin from Cologne. The creators are going for “Boardwalk Empire in Berlin".

Matthias Glasner (“Mercy“) is already shooting a contemporary police drama for German TV ZDF: in “Die Lebenden und die Toten“ (“The Living and the Dead”), both the city of Berlin and its inhabitants are again the protagonists, weaving together the underworld and social elites, personal stories and political intrigue in Germany’s capital. Starring Jürgen Vogel, Thomas Heinze and German Film Award winner Jördis Triebel (the stellar lead in our EU Film Festival Toronto 2014 selection “West“).

Private channel RTL has enlisted Edward Berger, successful with “Jack“ at the last Berlinale, for at least the first five episodes of what they call an “event series” titled “Deutschland!” (thus the exclamation mark I suppose). 1983: young East German spy Moritz Stamm is sent to West Germany. Between peace protests, NATO manoeuvres and the New German Wave of pop music, he ends up between all sides and finds himself holding a delicate balance of power between the two German states. Watch for some big names --Ulrich Noethen (“Hannah Arendt”), Maria Schrader (“Rosenstrasse”)—mixed with some fresh faces.

Subtle auteur Hans-Christian Schmid (“Home for the Weekend”) is working on a thriller mini-series called “Das Verschwinden” (“Disappearance”) – that of 20-year-old Janine from her small home town. Based on the true story of four families, whose idyllic lives come apart at the seams.

Could Germany be the new home of “Broadchurch“-ian arthouse crime?

Further down the pipeline, there are some interesting international and co-productions, like the Steven Spielberg-directed and Coen brothers-written spy thriller “St. James Place“ set in Berlin, in which an American lawyer is recruited by the CIA during the Cold War to help rescue a pilot detained in the Soviet Union. Starring Tom Hanks and Sebastian Koch. Release date: 16 October 2015.

And more German history on the way. August Diehl stars in a French film, “En mai, fais ce qu’il te plait“ by Christian Carion, out next year. A German fleeing the Nazis is looking for his son amid the waves of French refugees trying to escape the advancing German troops in 1940 France. Meanwhile Hans Steinbichler has received the okay from the Anne Frank Fonds to put the story of the young German Jewish diarist on the big screen in 2015 -- as a first German production (while German television is now also planning an Anne Frank film directed by Oliver Berben).

Leaving the juiciest news for last, confirmed as of today. Christoph Waltz will be James Bond's nemesis as Oberhauser, the evil head of the of course evil organisation SPECTRE. Chiwetel Ejiofor had earlier dropped out as villain of the "Bond 24" projet. While filming is about to begin --among other locations in Waltz' home of Austria--, we will only see the results on November 6, 2015. Another potential Germanic villain in a major motion picture series is Daniel Brühl, who has been associated with “Captain America: Civil War”, slated for 2016.

A final, hopefully soothing, image for the snowy season: “The Downfall”’s Hitler Bruno Ganz will be Heidi’s grandpa Almöhi. Everybody’s favourite Swiss children’s book about the lively orphan girl roaming the Alps is being redone by Alain Gsponer for 2015/16. Lots of genre choice ahead for the next 24 months.

See you at the Kino.

by Jutta Brendemühl


image: Sebastian Koch at the Goethe-Institut Toronto 2013 c Goethe Institut photo Jutta Brendemuehl