Thank you, Toronto film audiences, for awarding our German selection WELCOME TO GERMANY the EUFFTO Audience Prize! As we had a sold-out house at the Royal Cinema and had to turn 200 people away, we'll be rescreening the film on January 26. Book your reservations now to avoid disappointment.
"A comedy about the current refugee crisis? Is that possible? In his film on the state of the nation, Simon Verhoeven proves that it is, and very well. According to the German Film and Media Assessment jury, the film WELCOME TO GERMANY has come at just the right time when the 'We can do it' pro and cons camps face one another seemingly irreconcilably.
With the means of comedy, the film sensitively and satirically demonstrates the many aspects involved in the integration of refugees while holding a mirror up to the audience.
Set in the middle-class Munich milieu, each of the characters is lovingly targeted: the dedicated mother and former school director who wants to take in a refugee in her home with support from her daughter, still a student. The conservative father, a chief physician grappling with aging, and the jet-setting son, a single father who never has time for his son, are the skeptics.
The movie begins to really take off when Diallo, a refugee from Nigeria whose asylum application has not yet been decided, moves in with the Hartmanns. Diallo becomes the catalyst for the conflicts and problems the Hartmanns have as an ordinary family. The dialogues in which the refugee expresses his lack of comprehension about why the over 30-year-old daughter hasn’t had children or when he talks to father Hartmann about family relationships are incisive and amusing.
The film tackles issues such as generational conflicts, competition and aging with ease and nonchalance. After Diallo moves in, the Hartmann’s very ordinary problems are compounded through surveillance by drone-fixated police officers and a vigil held by enraged nationalist-leaning citizens, which leads to a stupendous showdown.
FBW then awards their coveted "recommended watching" ratings. All productions honoured by the FBW qualify for support from
Each role in the ensemble film is perfectly cast. The actors, especially Senta Berger, consistently perform with great enthusiasm. And there is a nice reunion with the buddies from (Doris Dörrie's 1985 hit comedy) MEN..., Heiner Lauterbach (in the role of father Hartmann) and Uwe Ochsenknecht as a cosmetic surgeon as well as Ulrike Kriener as a wacky member of the 1968 generation.
WELCOME TO GERMANY has captured the zeitgeist , it poses the questions we ask ourselves and, with the means of comedy, it makes the audience laugh and think. The jury awards it a unanimous rating of 'recommended watching.'"
To support viewers' decision-making of what might be worth watching, the German Film and Media Assessment FBW regularly puts together juries of five film experts to examine all submitted productions and select those of outstanding quality.
The jury, consisting of members of the filmmaking industry, programmers, critics, journalists and scholars from across Germany, highlights films fulfilling certain criteria: relevance in the socio-cultural context of its making; successful combination between topicality and artistic interpretation; innovation in storytelling; excellence in all technical categories.
FBW then awards their coveted "recommended watching" ratings. All productions honoured by the FBW qualify for support from German film boards.
promo image: courtesy Wiedemann und Berg
