We’re proud to show you the Canadian premiere of Berlinale award-winning If Not Us, Who?, lauded writer-director documentarist Andres Veiel’s feature debut. He famously dealt with the topic of 1970s German left-wing terrorism in Black Box BRD ten years ago (at Hot Docs).If Not Us, Who? actually brings together –not for the first or last time— colleagues and friends August Diehl (as the lead Bernward Vesper) and Alexander Fehling (as renegade Andreas Baader) – both “Shooting Stars” presented in our series. Diehl, who has quickly become one of Germany’s most popular actors and who likes to list Robert de Niro as his idol, successfully balances a career that ranges from the recent US action thriller Salt (as Angelina Jolie’s “husband”) to his break-out role in Hans-Christian Schmid’s Cold War hacker drama 23 (1998), which we are showing as well in this double bill on Diehl.
Asked in an interview with German political magazine Cicero about the strong interlacing of the private and the political that emerged in the 70s, Diehl answered that “this is the big conflict I felt: the politicization of the private. Somehow I admire that generation for their alertness, for their compulsive If Not Now, When? And of course that is also what broke them.“
You will have a chance to see August Diehl a third time, in our following night – co-starring alongside our final Shooting Star Maria Simon… more soon.
A live video of the band Hands Up Experiment that Diehl is a member of here.
Wednesday, January 25, double bill:
Canadian premiere!: If Not Us, Who? (D 2011, 124 min), directed by Andres Veiel.
"A prequel to German terrorism in such biographical intensity as it has never been told before (...)" (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
Germany in the early 60s: a time of departure. Bernward Vesper (Diehl), son of the Nazi-writer Will Vesper, is rebellious. When he meets Gudrun Ensslin, it’s the beginning of an extreme affair: unconditional, excessive, beyond all thresholds of pain. Together they set off to conquer the world. But less than 10 years later, Bernward is caught up in the madness of drugs and Gudrun throws herself into the armed underground. German Film Award, Alfred Bauer Award.
Watch the trailer (with English subtitles).
23 (D 1998, 99 min), directed by Hans-Christian Schmid.
Based on the true story of young computer hackers who break into government and military computers, trying to sell information to the KGB.
Hanover 1996: in an age of growing uncertainty, the 19 year-old hacker Karl (Diehl) sees the world around him as being in disorder. Convinced of a global conspiracy and addicted to pills and cocaine, Karl loses control over his life. When the bond of trust with David, his best friend, breaks apart, Karl is now all alone on his journey. German Film Award.
Watch the German trailer.
6:30pm (doors open 6:10pm); Cinema 4, TIFF Bell Lightbox, Toronto
Tickets $10 per night, $5 for ACTRA members; day-of at the TIFF Box Office
Open to audiences 18+
with English subtitles; 35mm
by Jutta Brendemühl, Goethe-Institut Toronto
