And Along Come Tourists

And Along Come Tourists

English-language poster
Original title Am Ende kommen Touristen
Directed by Robert Thalheim
Produced by Britta Knöller
Hans-Christian Schmid
Screenplay by Robert Thalheim
Story by Bernd Lange
Hans-Christian Schmid
Starring Alexander Fehling
Ryszard Ronczewski
Barbara Wysocka
Music by Anton K. Feist
Uwe Bossenz
Cinematography Yoliswa Gärtig
Edited by Stefan Kobe
Release dates
  • 16 August 2007 (2007-08-16)
Running time
 85 minutes
Country Germany
Language German

And Along Come Tourists is a 2007 German dramatic film that was written and directed by Robert Thalheim. The principal characters are a young German doing civilian service at the former German Auschwitz concentration camp and an elderly camp survivor living there. Thalheim himself did his civilian service (Zivildienst) at the International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim/Auschwitz in 1996–1997, and portions of the film were shot at the Center and in the nearby town of Oświęcim, Poland. Filming was not permitted at the site of the concentration camp itself, where more than one million persons had been murdered by the end of the Second World War in 1945.[1]

The film's title in German, Am Ende kommen Touristen, is taken from a volume of poetry published by Björn Kuhligk in 2000.

The principal performers are Alexander Fehling as Sven Lehnert and Ryszard Ronczewski as the survivor Stanislaw Krzemiński. Barbara Wysocka plays Ania Łanuszewskaa, a young Polish woman from Oświęcim with whom Sven develops a romantic relationship.

The film premièred August 16, 2007 in Germany; its North American premiere was September 12, 2007 at the Toronto International Film Festival.[1] In 2010 and 2011 the film was broadcast on German television.[2]

In 2007 Bonnie J. Gordon wrote of the film that it is "a quiet triumph ... economically blends modern life's truths, such as the fragility of 20-something love affairs, with universal themes, such as the search for meaning and the human need to expiate guilt."[3] Jürgen Fauth wrote "Without ever resorting to preachiness, Thalheim, who was a Zivi at Auschwitz himself, offers incisive insights into the thorny contradictions and treacherous cross-currents of guilt and memory that turn any kind of exploration of the overbearing past into a minefield."[4]

The film was nominated for the German Film Award for Best Feature Film (the "Lola"). Alexander Fehling received the Förderpreis Neues Deutsches Kino (Advancement Prize for New German Cinema) for his performance as Sven. A version of the film was broadcast on German television in 2010 and 2011, for which Robert Thalheim won the Eberhard-Fechner Award .[2]

A DVD version of the film was released in Europe in 2008.[5] A region 1 DVD (for North America) has not been released.

References

  1. 1 2 Louk, Lidia (September 14, 2007). "Interview with 'And Along Come Tourists' Director Robert Thalheim". The Epoch Times. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14.
  2. 1 2 "Grimme-Preis 2011 für ZDF-Produktion 'Klimawechsel'; 'Am Ende kommen Touristen' erhält Eberhard-Fechner-Förderstipendium" [Grimme Prize for 2011 goes to the ZDF-production 'Climate Change'; 'And Along Come Tourists' receives the Eberhard-Fechner Award] (in German). ZDF. March 16, 2011. The Eberhard Fechner Award is a special award given annually in conjunction with the Grimme Prize for German television productions.
  3. ↑ Gordon, Bonnie J. (October 25, 2007). "And Along Come Tourists". The Hollywood Reporter. Associated Press.
  4. ↑ Fauth, Jürgen. "And Along Come Tourists: Encounters with the Past in Present-Day Auschwitz". about.com. Archived from the original on 2014-04-13.
  5. ↑ Am Ende kommen Touristen (Region 2 DVD) (in German). Warner Home Video. 2008. OCLC 635949750. 82 minutes. Subtitles in German only.

Further reading

External links


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