Films that tell their stories
It always takes time to clearly analyze unbearable things that have happened in the past. This is the legacy of modern German history. Firstly, with two world wars, then with the split between East and West Germany, there has been a lot to digest.
A couple of recent films do great service to the presentation of history in direct and honest ways. The first was The Lives of Others, a film about the East German years of clouded tyranny where everyone was a potential enemy, on the verge of giving up his neighbors and friends to the state machine. In an insightful decision, the story focused on an individual man, and how he managed to overcome this.
The other broaches the horrible topic of the holocaust. Although an Austrian film, the filmmakers tell a quintessentially German story. Once again, they decided to focus on smaller, more personal players in this gargantuan game. Selected concentration camp prisoners are ordered to counterfeit first the British pound note, then the American dollar, in the hope that the Nazi can inundate these countries with fake money, and ruin their economy. The Counterfeiters is a true story, but that is not where the greatness of the film lies.
There must be a dilemma in holocaust films about how to depict the horrors of the concentration camps. Well, this film bypasses that awful decision, showing us only glimpses of the atrocities. But, the bulk of the story is told in the clean, almost normal environment of the counterfeit studios, which are set apart from the rest of the camp.
Yes, they are still in a concentration camp, but at least there are clean sheets, good food and above all beautiful music (albeit it being there to drown the noise of what is going on outside of their small haven.)
It is a story, told without camera tricks or filmic devises. It could almost be a made for TV film, or even a straightforward documentary. But, its simplicity and honesty, especially when juxtaposing the barely bearable studios with the occasional (and final) views of the rest of the camp, is devastating.
Both these films won Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars.
Well done, to the Germans.