..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

Knockwurst
on Heaven's Door

When The Edukators (aka Die Fetten Jahre sind Vorbei) was selected for official competition at Cannes last year, it was the first time in 11 years that a German movie had made the event's short list. Officials in the German film industry had been griping for years that the festival had a bias that disadvantaged its production and the decade long absence appeared to confirm that suspicion.

However, Cannes had also trumpeted the likes of Fassbinder, Hertzog and Wenders and The Tin Drum received its Palme d'or in the 1970s when the new German cinema was in its glory. There have been a few reversals since then but in recent years there are more than a couple of indications that a newer wave of Teutonic auteurs are coming into their own. Nowhere in Africa received the Oscar and Downfall was a nominee last year. At home such recent comedies as The Shoes of the Manitou, Seven Dwarves - Men in the Woods and Starship Surprise were as popular as any Hollywood blockbuster and Downfall, Head-On and Goodbye Lenin! have been among its highly exportable local movies in the past several years.

"Cannes is like an artistic clearing house," says Hans Weingartner, the director of The Edukators. "I think we were probably too much in shock at being in competition to realize the import of the festival. But there you are on the red carpet for all the world to see and this little film we made makes people laugh and think regardless of where they come from. It was actually our first public screening, so the stakes were really high."

Weingartner who was born and raised in Austria has spent a good chunk of the past year traveling the world with his film. It focuses on three contemporary twentysomethings who are small time political activists. The two men break into homes of the wealthy and rearrange furniture and leave the threatening note (loosely translated as: the good times are over) that's the basis of the original title.

"It's a phrase that's well known in Germany but doesn't have much resonance elsewhere. That's why we adopted the simpler title - the name they've given themselves," he notes.

When the woman - the third part of the triangle - becomes involved in the hijinx, a break in backfires and they wind up kidnapping a businessman. The last section of the film effectively comes to terms with his coming to grips with the loss of youthful ideals and the trio of Gen-Xers realizing their lofty political cant is no more than prankish behavior.

Weingartner has watched audiences in such diverse locales as Sao Paolo, Moscow, Miami and Jerusalem be entertained by his message. While he hasn't generally seen radically different reactions to the film or its characters, he's constantly amazed but what those diverse geographic crowds tell him about his work. Co-written with Katharina Held, he's become more acutely aware of the fact that there's a universal frustration with the political process and a longing for a way to voice dissent.

"The Swiss had the most intense response _ they went berserk," says Weingarten. "It had to be a kind of emotional release because it's a very strictly regimented society. They really related to the character's acts of defiance. It seemed to be a cathartic experience with the film providing a kind of escape valve for their frustration."

Though Germany was famous for its radical student movements of the 1960s and '70s, the nation became increasingly complacent as it ascended into a major economic power according to the filmmaker. The fear of losing the trappings of success, comfort and ease became omnipresent and social, political and ecological issues receded. As a result protest became a very small, grass roots activity.

The film's original title has its origins in the Bible and refers to the cycle of seven fat years followed by seven lean ones. Weingarten doesn't foresee anything quite so radical happening in Germany or any European or Western nation. But there's little question to him that the chasm between have and have not areas of the globe is widening and a new generation appears to be more attune to that inequity.

"I've been told that The Edukators has helped stimulate discussion and growth for a number of organizations in Germany," he says. "It's very flattering to hear and, of course, one wants to believe it's true even in a small way. I certainly believe that there have to be reforms in the economic system because it certainly appears to evolving into a revolutionary mess. When half the world is overweight and half starving, you know it cannot be good for the world's soul."

Weingarten initially studied physics at university and segued into research on the human brain. He decided to do a film as part of a term paper and says that resulted in him "getting bitten by the movie bug."

The Edukators is his third feature but his prior two films never really escaped the art house and film festival ghetto. He sees his development from someone making niche fare to tackling more widely embraceable subjects as reflective of his film characters attempt to break out of regional concerns and into more universal issues.

If there is a new wave of German filmmakers, he'd have to characterize it as more of the zeitgeist than an actual physical community. Historically the country's filmmaking activity has been diluted by the absence of an infrastructure with key artists living and working in Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne and other major centers. However, since the dismantling of the Berlin Wall there's been a growing attraction to that city.

"I'd say that about two-thirds of the filmmaking is now centered in Berlin. Part of it is simply because it's a cheaper place to live. But you need somewhere that functions efficiently and can handle the necessities that allow for a viable commercial industry to produce popular television programs and movies. It's almost impossible to support an art cinema without a functioning commercial one."

The conundrum is that filmmaking tends to be highly individualistic and that cuts across the grain of a cohesive industry in his opinion. Yet in order to reach out beyond one's borders, he's learned to be more attentive to mixing commercial elements and enlisting more seasoned professionals into his productions.

The Cannes experience was like a crash course on the global logistics of movie making and he was initially quite taken aback by the onslaught of international producers that approached him about co-venturing projects. When he caught his breath, Weingartner was better able to appreciate that the prospects of making more ambitious projects had opened up to him and it would be foolhardy to dismiss that out of hand.

The American debut of The Edukators is virtually the last stop on the picture's itinerary and the filmmaker says while the ride has been fun, he can't use it as an excuse anymore to putting off pushing on to the next project. He has several options that range from what he describes as a big science-fiction story about spiritual salvation to something on a smaller scale that focuses on a societal drop out who wants to sabotage an oppressive system. Ultimately he knows that it's best to keep his options open because financing will be the closer on all future efforts.

August 2 , 2005

- by Leonard Klady