Made in Germany

With Made in Germany the German filmmaker Thomas Hausner, who is also working as a journalist and producer for German television (as an ARD correspondent in Bosnia and Croatia, for example) and as deputy director and teacher at the Munich Film Academy, has made a strikingly witty portrait of Germany. Especially for those who say that the book on German humour is probably the thinnest in world history, or who immediately think of worn-out catchwords like ‘Autobahn’, ‘Heidelberg’, ‘Volkswagen’, ‘Oktoberfest’, ‘Wirtschaftswunder’, ‘Lederhosen’ or ‘Fräulein’. Illustrative of the outsider‘s ideas about Germany is of course the ‘Don‘t mention the war’ sketch from ‘Fawlty Towers’, in which John Cleese keeps bringing up the war to his German guests. This sketch is one of many film fragments in Hausner‘s portrait, because Made in Germany is a collage constructed around old ‘Movietone’- and ‘Pathé’-films, hilarious beer commercials, ‘newsreels’ and numerous film fragments. Together they make up an image of German society, but particularly of the way it is regarded from abroad in the past forty years. Hausner has edited this archive footage without a voice-over. This approach reflects the ambivalent attitude towards Germany, as well as the seriously underrated ability of German people to mock themselves. In a subtle style the director uses a mixture of irony and sarcasm on the one hand and love and compassion on the other, making Made in Germany transcend the clichés about Germany in more than one respect. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)