Fack Ju Gohte.

Europe seems to be a very emotive subject at present, discussed daily on UK news media – should we stay or should we go that is the question? But a far more important question to ask  ‘are European comedies funny’? Before I watched Bora Dagtekin’s award winning 2013 German comedy Fack Ju Gohte I would have been of the opinion that that humour would not necessary carry very well across continents, but how wrong could I be. 

 

Zeki's teaching methods are a touch unorthodox. 

Written and directed by Dagtekin, as was his first feature film Turkisch Fur Anfanger (2012) that was based on a successful TV series of the same name and run for three seasons between 2006 and 2008. This comic entertainment was shot in and around Munich and Berlin. Interestingly the prison scenes were shot in the former GDR prison in Keibelstrabe in Berlin.

 

First date in a Pole Dancing Club where Lisi meets Charlie - thats classy! 

The story involves bank robber Zeki Muller (Elyas M’Barek) who has just been released from jail. Upon his release he goes to see his pole-dancing girlfriend Charlie (Jana Pallaske Inglourious Basterds 2009) to retrieve the money he stole which he needs to repay a debt owing to a violent criminal, Charlie informs him that she buried the money on a construction site but during the time he spent in prison the construction project has been completed and his money is now buried beneath the new gymnasium at the Goethe Comprehensive School! But Zeki has a plan and applies for the vacant janitors at the school.  The headmistress (the brilliant Katja Riemann) mistakes Zeki’s job application for a substitute teachers position made vacant after one of her staff attempted suicide by throwing herself out of a school window following a particular stressful day teaching the undisciplined Class 10B and subsequently awards him the job. He spends his nights digging under the gym for the missing money and his days attempting to bring Class 10B into line. Meantime he meets a rather prim and proper teacher Lisi Schnabelstedt (played by Karoline Herfurth who you may have seen in Berlin 36 (2009) as Gretel Bergmann) who finds his method of teaching a little unorthodox but never the less begins to fall in love with him.   

 

Headteacher's don't always get it right!

The title we are informed is an intentional misspelling of Fuck you Goethe or if you believe IMDB the English title is Suck me Shakespeer. Either way it’s a great movie and one I can certainly recommend it to you for some welcome light hearted viewing. I can guarantee that it will actually make you laugh and that you will love the characters all played with great gusto by a very talented cast. This movie is the first of two, the sequel is called Fack Ju Gohte 2 and was released in 2015 with much the same line up and if its as funny and entertaining as the first film it too will be well worth seeing.

Berlin 36

The Berlin Olympics of 1936 were immortalised in two films by the innovative Leni Riefenstahl, the first was called Festival of the Nations and the second Festival of Beauty both released in 1938 and (if you ignore the political overtones) represents a tremendous aesthetic and technical cinematic achievement.[1] Originally Adolf Hitler did not want to stage the Olympics because the Olympian ideals clashed with his National Socialist ideology and the thought that non-Aryan athletes would be competing against Aryan races repulsed the Nazis. With the German Olympic committee banning Jews from being part of the games the United States of America threatened to boycott them completely if there were no Jews in the German team.  Realising that the games would be a failure if the Americans, and possible other nations did not take part they knew they would have to bite the bullet and do some thing to appease a nation whose race relations was not a great deal better than there own.

Based on a novel written by Gretel Bergmann and the 2004 HBO documentary Hitler’s Pawn – The Margaret Lambert Story Berlin 36 (2009) is the story of how the Nazis kept the USA on side by forcing a young German Jewess Gretel Bergmann to return from Britain where she had become the current UK female high jump champion. Although she had no wish to return to Germany she was given no choice because of the threats to her family, who were still living there. After she returned home it was made pretty obvious that the Nazis had no intention of letting a medal be presented by Hitler to a Jew! To this end they introduced an unknown high jumper into the team, but Marie Ketteler had her own secrets which if widely known would of upset the Fuhrer as much as awarding a non-Aryan medal.

 

Sebastian Urzendowksy and Karoline Herfurth.

Director Kasper Heidelbach’s debut feature film tells a story of two outsiders who despite being put under enormous pressure by the German government and its people form a very close friendship during a somewhat stressful period in their lives. The director admitted that history had been dramatized and that real life incidents condensed to fit in with the cinematic formula and the 100-minute running time but he did interview Gretel Bergmann at great length, who incidentally approved the movie, which enabled him to get closer to the character.  Heidelbach also admitted in the interview for the DVD extra’s that casting Bergmann was not a problem and that Karoline Herfurth the East Berlin born actress was immediately chosen for the part. But the complex role of Marie Ketteler was quite difficult, but after a lengthy audition period Sebastian Urzendowksy was cast in the role. It has to be admitted that the selection of the two main leads was inspirational with both actors able to express emotions and feeling without the use of dialogue. Computer generation was used for the Olympic stadium as the original complex was considered unstable but never the less some of the scenes were actually filmed there.   The story of how two brave young people try to outwit their rulers is different from other movies that depict the Third Reich, but in its own rather unique way exposes the inhuman society that intentionally conspired against Gretel Bergmann.  

 

Gretel Bergmann high jump champion. 

Gretel Bergmann in later life.

Dora Ratien.

The character Marie Ketteler, whose real name was Dora Ratjen, was forced to remain in the German ladies high jump team and compete at international level. In 1938 she became European Champion with a new world record of 1.7 metres.  In 1939 on a trip home unkempt and drunk, she provoked the Gestapo and was arrested.  In a closed session the court of Verden declared her to be a man. Surviving the war Ratjen died in 2008 in total reclusion. Gretel Bergmann emigrated to the USA in 1937 and became America’s high jump champion in 1937 and 1938. Bruno Lambert, her fiancé, followed in 1938 and they married in the September. Gretel’s family were also able to flee Germany in time to escape the Holocaust. Gretel and her husband still live in New York.

The 1936 Olympics. 

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[1] Alex von Tunzelmann The Guardian June 2012.