From the Perspective of the Family: New German Cinema
For critics who follow the main festivals of the world, it’s always interesting to discover the World Premiere competitions in other festivals. This is the case at the Munich Film Festival, which offered a range of the New German Cinema in the section assessed by the FIPRESCI jury. What we found here was a large and heterogeneous group of films that, taken together, covered different genres and approaches: from proper documentary to fiction films, including a large number of satirical works with eccentric flashes not always easily accessible. On the other hand, some of the freshest and most interesting films overlapped—with different approaches—on the subject of family relationships.
The dynamics that arise in the family have always been of cinematic interest. But, in the perception of women of the last century and much of this one, they have been addressed, on many occasions, from cliché and stereotype. Cinema has often shunned the conflict that arises in the bonds of proximity and kinship. And that’s why some of the best works, both classic and contemporary, have treated this issue with concern, with honesty, and the intention of addressing the problems arising from the family: from the English cinema headed by Mike Leigh and Andrea Arnold, passing through the Japanese Kore-eda or Yôji Yamada, and ending, for instance, in the intricate family relationships by Andrey Zvyagintsev, who has not released a film for a long time. It is an inexhaustible subject which, from the female point of view, takes on a new perspective in the two most awarded films in this edition of the Munich Film Festival: Karla, by Christina Tournatzés, and Sechswochenamt, by Jacqueline Jansen, the film that we awarded the FIPRESCI prize.
Karla offers an intense drama based on true events. The story goes back to the early 1960s, as a twelve-year-old girl, Karla Ebel, walks into a police station determined to report her father. Despite her young age, she is forceful. She doesn’t want the officer on duty to take her report, but instead asks to speak to a judge. Before the Me Too movement, she was already standing up for her claims. She just wants to be believed. The person who was supposed to look after her repeatedly sexually abused her. The family structure can no longer support her. Without a home to protect her, the bond between the judge and this girl is key. Christina Tournatzés knows this, and in her directorial debut, she manages to extract a very special chemistry between these two characters.
Elsewhere, Karla has a great sense of cinematic imagery in weaving a web of gestures that call into question the traditional family system. Avoiding sensationalism and emotional blackmail, the story achieves a consistency that does not plead for sympathy but for uplift. It is the proof that balance can be found between cinema verité and a commitment to visual point of view and the script itself—so refined that the final twist is surprising. Although many trial films have been released in recent years, such as the Golden Palm winner Anatomy of a Fall or Saint Omer, this one has the courage to enter a thorny subject, well aware of the task at hand. A dangerous artifact, if it didn’t find the balance it displays, being at the same time a very modern film in its approach, and classic in the way it takes us back to a space that it perfectly masters.
Along with Karla, Sechswochenamt by Jacqueline Jansen was the other big winner at the Munich Film Festival, winning not only the FIPRESCI award but also the best actress and best production in the German Cinema section, awarded by a jury composed by Liliane Amuat, Erol Afsin, and Jan-Ole Gerster. Its plot revolves around a young woman who says her last goodbyes to her mother in hospital after the mother has just died of cancer at the start of the COVID pandemic. In addition to mourning the loss, the young woman must now manage a death. In fact, the title of the film alludes to a memorial mass that the Catholic Church holds, at the request of relatives. This ritual forms part of a succession of protocols that transform a story that could have been languid and melodramatic into one that finds nooks and crannies for black humor that lightens the tone and gives the film an extraordinary rhythm. Framed between an opening and a closing scene that are artistically exquisite, the film’s development is admirable in the way it administers its resources.
Another film this year shares the same storyline as Sechswochenamt: Year of the Widow by Veronika Lišková, which I had the opportunity to see at Crossing Europe. But unlike Lišková’s film, Jansen’s film is superb in sensitively showing flashes of light to illuminate the labyrinth that the protagonist must go through. On the other hand, it is very evident that this exercise in style, full of character, reveals an authenticity that has to do with the personal experience of its author. Very close to the documentary genre—one of the reasons that convinced us as a FIPRESCI jury, after a passionate deliberation, to award it the prize, is its demonstration that cinema can be made with modest means, with talent, and with a desire to externalize a reality—which becomes an exercise in catharsis, highlighting family drama in the face of life’s major events.
In addition to these films, two others had the family as the driving force of their story, formulating very interesting exercises such as Missing Link by Michael Baumann or All That’s Due by Franz Müller. In particular, Baumann’s work is a luminous family drama, with sparkling dialogue and scenes, and psychologically acute in its characters. Very observant and sensitive, it draws a choral portrait that weaves together the new family models very well, shedding light and offering ingenious ideas on its situation. In addition, the actors and actresses stand out, making up the symphony of voices that complement each other. Among these actresses, the role of Susanne Wolff, the Sisi & I actress, is glorious. All That’s Due is also very enjoyable, but it was a more difficult film to award because it had a long-term dynamic that was better suited to a series format.
Rosana G. Alonso
Edited by Robert Horton
©FIPRESCI 2025