Am Ende kommen Touristen

Sven, a young German (Alexander Fehling), electing to do civilian work for his national service and hoping to be sent to Amsterdam, is sent, without any preparation, to Oswiecim (Auschwitz), where he is to act as the helper of an octogenarian Polish former inmate (Ryszard Ronczewski), who has chosen to go on living on the camp site, repairing disintegrating suitcases for the exhibition there and occasionally speaking as a witness to tourists.

The young man is gradually sensitized to the situation; the old man, crusty and unfriendly towards the young German, hardly changes in his attitude. Both performances were quite magnificent.

The ordinary citizens of today's Oswiecim are reminded when they are asked where they come from that they live in a place whose name is associated with infamy; but otherwise they live very normal lives, and there seems to be no incongruity in the fact that the young people of Oswiecim dance the nights away in bars and pop venues just as young people do in other places. Some, like the young woman who becomes Sven's girl friend (Barbara Wysocka), who are good linguists, make a living out of conducting guided tours through the camp.

I think it is an ALMOST perfect film, sensitive, bringing out the relationship between the two main characters, with straightforward and ungimmicky filming. But, without forgetting that there were many non-Jewish Poles who also suffered in Auschwitz, it is all the same somewhat astonishing that Jews are nowhere mentioned in the film. The old man presumably was not Jewish; as a Polish inmate he had been given the job by the Nazis to collect the suitcases from the new arrivals. Repairing the suitcases for the exhibition is his mission in life. The only indication of the Holocaust is the fact that one can read the Jewish names on the suitcases.

A young conscientious objector from Germany -- back in the days when there was still compulsive national service-- serves his term in Oscwiescim running errands for a holocaust survivor, and falls in love with a local girl who wants to escape the mediocrity of the Polish boondocks. This movie is well shot and acted, but the plot is too predictable. Of course, the old guy is grumpy (and not really a great humanitarian who welcomes the idealistic lad), and the young couple grapples with a bit of anti-German sentiment. That's what I expected from the opening credits, and that's what this movie delivers. The fact that the male and female leads are a bit too toothsome detracts from the plausibility of the romance and adds to the predictability of the plot.

"Am Ende kommen Touristen" (literally: "In the end it's tourists coming") is more than a film about Auschwitz today. Actually, it is not even a film about Auschwitz. It is a film about how the abyss of the past transcends into the problems of the present. It is a story of trans-generation and trans-national relations that gain extra-dynamics by the presence of the historical weight of the concentration camp of Auschwitz.

In this sense, the film is an amazing piece of story-telling because it catches the hesitations and irritations that we all - especially in my generation - have when dealing with our past knowing that in fact we are handling the questions and relations of today. Additionally, "Am Ende kommen Touristen" has a very subtle way of mixing irony and cynicism, attention and ignorance, anger and joy, closeness and distance without making it feel constructed or misleading. It is not very innovative in terms of film-making or cinematic narrative (therefore 9/10) but it is a very honest story with fondly drawn characters, respect for past and present, and an appropriate ending that is really worth seeing - even more than once!

This film has no clichés, which is amazing considering its subject has had a thousand examinations ,but never from the view of people who it plays little roles in their life.

It is a great examination of the still strained relationship of Germany and the rest of European and the dominate role Germany plays in the EU economy.

Stuble and fun until the tourist come. You will understand if you get to see this great film I saw it at TIFF.

The crowds were extremely ethusiastic about the film

Director and writer reveals that it is semi auto biographical at a Q and A at TIFF