Munich Film Festival Review: Deutschboden (2013)

Cast: Moritz von Uslar
Director: André Schäfer
Country: Germany
Genre: Documentary

Editor’s Notes: The following article is part of our coverage of the Munich International Film Festival. For more information on the festival visit filmfest-muenchen.de and follow the Munich International Film Festival on Twitter at @filmfestmunich.

If an outsider is asked to give some views about Germany, he would tell different aspects like automobiles, lots of beer and so on. But the most important of all that is left unspoken or people hesitant to speak about is the Second World War, Nazis and the unification of Germany. Even for people coming from West Germany, they seldom know about the culture and the lifestyle of the people living in the east, even after the unification.

Andre Schäfer’s latest travel memoir documentary Deutschboden, which is adapted from the novel ‘Deutschboden: Eine teilnehmende Beobachtung’ by Moritz van Uslar, explores the place that is less travelled in Germany and make us travel along with him in this  90 minutes of enjoyable and emotional journey.

Uslar, just like the novel, narrates each and every detail about the architecture and the landscapes of the place called ‘Oberhavel’, near to the city of Brandenburg, in the east of Germany.

Uslar, just like the novel, narrates each and every detail about the architecture and the landscapes of the place called ‘Oberhavel’, near to the city of Brandenburg, in the east of Germany. First 10 minutes into the documentary, we can sense Uslar is going to stay in this place for many days to come and report the culture and the lifestyle of the people out here for his magazine, novel and of course this documentary. He does it in style and makes us know more about the perspectives and the attitude of the people out there with respect to different topics like Music, Jobs, Girls, Drugs, Nazis and everything under the roof.

Dilapidated buildings, withered houses, closed shops, with not so many people are the conditions of the present Oberhavel and its surroundings. Extensive narration is given by Uslar on how the town had forgotten to maintain or even take steps to renovate them. We can find many people in their late 50’s struggling to have a livelihood out there. Even after the unification, not much drastic changes had happened in the town of Zehdenick, and it still looks like what it was in the 1950s. Many of the younger generation, with unemployment depend solely on the social welfare. But that doesn’t spoil their enjoyment in life a single bit. Every night, the guys used to assemble in the local gas station with crates of beer and party hard with fights, car stunts and brawls. Even a group of guys are planning to start an alternate punk band of their own. Sometimes, Uslar is surprised about the lifestyle of the people here unlike the people in other parts of Germany.  The people here are the biggest asset to the town. Not much of places and not much of population, makes them live as one single family. Almost all of them recognize each other instantaneously. All these things, along with the narration of Uslar make the audience interested about this place and make them anxious to visit at some point in their life.

The documentary also voices out the stereotypes the people have, when it comes to East Germany. Added to that, it also reveals the fact that there are still some extremists and neo-nazis wandering in the town causing troubles to the society they have hatred towards. Others feel that because of them, the impression of the town is getting tarnished.

Along with getting acquainted with the small town in the east of Germany, Deutschboden also opens up our minds to explore more and suggests us meet a lot of people to get to know about their culture, break the stereotypes and share the ideas of life with each other.

Though the town has nothing in it except some buildings and forests, the shots of nightlife and lonely streets are beautiful to watch on the screen. We start to think that this lifestyle is much easier and happier compared to the crowded city life and everyday struggle to earn more money. Uslar interviews a family over a party and explain how they were bound together as a family even in the desperate times, and are not regretting the fact of spending their life in this town. The documentary also has its share of laughs when Uslar narrates about the everyday life of Deutschboden and compares it with other countries like Kosovo, Slovakia and likewise. This group of four guys has always been the representative or the face of the people in this town throughout the documentary and they reveal many things about the people, government and also how their town is so close to the polish border, in turn make them compare the quality of girls from there and here.

Along with getting acquainted with the small town in the east of Germany, Deutschboden also opens up our minds to explore more and suggests us meet a lot of people to get to know about their culture, break the stereotypes and share the ideas of life with each other.

Travel memoirs always give us an account of how an individual explore the cultures from different corners of the world but when it gets adapted into a film, it may lose its value or the soul most of the times. But this documentary makes me all piqued to read the literary version of it.

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Venkateshwaran Ganesh

Staff Film Critic. Visit my personal blog at framesofeternity.wordpress.com

Venkatesh is a cinephile, who always try to relate some of the moments of his everyday life with the moving pictures. Though he started a bit late in exploring world cinema, directors like Kubrick, Bresson, Kieslowski, Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray made him stay in this wonderful world of cinema for years to come. Even in the midst of an apocalypse, he tweets @venkkeyy about films. And you can check his not so active blog http://framesofeternity.wordpress.com/ and motivate him time and again.

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