German Film Festival: The Wave

We watched yet another fab German film at the weekend - The Wave, obviously loosely based on the 1960s US experiment called 'the third wave' (gotta love Wikipedia) and I quote: "Jones (the teacher), unable to explain to his students how the German populace could claim ignorance of the extermination of the Jewish people, decided to show them instead. Jones started a movement called "The Third Wave" and convinced his students that the movement is to eliminate democracy."

What gets me is not that someone has made an intelligent, interesting film about this but that this was made in Germany by Germans.

This generation of film makers seem to be able - or at even want - to examine their shameful past history without flinching. Ref. Downfall, The Counterfeiters, The Wave. Which is what you're supposed to do, if you're to learn from it, but I'm not sure as Brits we would manage it in quite the same way. A small, sniffy (and rather pathetic) apology for the slave trade is one thing, making films that directly reflect your own grandparents rather gruesome deeds is quite another.

I'm not suggesting that the entire German nation is enlightened (they still like Hasselhoff, stone washed denim and mullets after all) but their artistic community is deliberately looking back with an unflinching eye. Gotta say, I admire them for it. And that's not something I ever expected to think about the Germans.

Rent it, see if you agree with me.

Lucy