Es war einmal in Deutschland
(Once upon in Germany, not Bye Bye Germany) is a brilliant movie set in Germany in 1946, right after all the atrocities that Germany committed. I really think that Germany forgot really fast the Holocaust and its gas chambers, and now the country is considered a modern and Eco-friendly country, but let's not forget that 75 years ago the whole country supported happily the humiliation and deportation of millions of people, the mass killings, and the gassing of men, women, and children (for the guilt and responsibility of the German common people in the Holocaust please read Yehuda Bauer's "Rethinking the Holocaust"). For that, I never understood why there are hardly any films about the Holocaust made in Germany, when, considering the magnitude of the tragedy, Germany should be doing 1 movie a day about the Holocaust (until reaching the 11 million). The really good German-speaking films critical movies about the Holocaust are actually not German: Die Fälscher (Stefan Ruzowitzky, 2007) is Austrian, Berlin'36 (Kaspar Heidelbach, 2009) is also Austrian, and the director of Es war einmal in Deutschland
(Sam Garbarski) was born in Germany but he is actually Belgian.
Es war einmal in Deutschland
is a funny, sad, and moving film that will make you laugh and cry. I don't think that here in Spain (I live in Madrid) the public really got the movie. If you don't know what a "Kapo" was, or what was happening at "the ramp" in Auschwitz (the majority of the Spanish public hardy know anything about the Holocaust) or what "Lechaim" means, you are going to miss some good points about the movie and some very good Jewish black humour.
The music of the film (composed by Renaud Garcia-Fons) is really beautiful. The cinematography (Virginie Saint-Martin), too.
The cast is absolutely AMAZING. Everybody is shining. Moritz Bleibtreu (Knockin' on Heaven's Door)'s performance is superb. And Anatole Taubman, Tim Seyfi, Mark Ivanir (Schindler's List), Antje Traue (Woman in Gold) are amazing too.
Go and see this movie today! You will learn some new things about the Holocaust, the biggest crime against Humanity. 10/10
