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In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts

The film, based on Eugen Ruge’s novel, is set in the fall of 1989. Relatives, friends, and comrades all come to celebrate the 90th birthday of the incorrigible, Stalinist functionary Wilhelm Powileit, but one person is missing: his nephew Sasha, ...

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The GDR has been over for more than a quarter of a century, but people still find it hard to take a nuanced view at the “other” German state, a view that doesn’t damn or glorify. As someone who experienced the GDR, one can gather that the truth lies somewhere between those poles and can sense how close Matti Geschonnek’s film IN ZEITEN DES ABNEHMENDEN LICHTS is to reality. The film, based on Eugen Ruge’s novel, is set in the fall of 1989 and the epic arc of the book has been condensed to a few hours by screenwriter Wolfgang Kohlhaase. The plot revolves around the 90th birthday of the incorrigible, Stalinist functionary Wilhelm Powileit (Bruno Ganz) and barely leaves the house, while the end of the GDR is looming outside. Relatives, friends, and comrades all come to honor him, but one person is missing: his nephew Sasha, who defected from the Republic during the night. This symptom of the decline of the state is meant to be hidden from the head of the family, if possible.

Human dramas play out during the birthday event wherein the man of the hour holds court, is favorable to some and awful to others, and is unimpressed by long-standing friendships and even family bonds. Geschonneck has sympathies for the personal fates of these people, but never hides their faults and the failures of the autocratic system. The tragedy of the failure of an idea is ever-present, the ideal of the socialist state that was impossible to implement in reality.

Michael Meyns

Translation: Elinor Lewy

Credits

Deutschland 2017, 101 min
Language: German, Russian
Genre: History, Drama
Director: Matti Geschonneck
Author: Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Eugen Ruge
DOP: Hannes Hubach
Distributor: X Verleih
Cast: Bruno Ganz, Sylvester Groth, Alexander Fehling, Hildegard Schmahl, Evgenia Dodin
FSK: oA
Release: 01.06.2017

Website

Screenings

  • OV Original version
  • OmU Original with German subtitles
  • OmeU Original with English subtitles

Keine Programmdaten vorhanden.

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