Deutschstunde

Siggi, an inmate of a post-war German juvenile detention centre, is forced to write an essay with the title ‘The Joy of Duty’. This is how Siggi gets to pen his dark memories of the war years. Back in the day, the eleven-year-old son of loyal police officer Jens Ole Jepsen found himself thrust between the hardened fronts of society: while his father obediently follows the task to enforce a work ban placed on Max Nansen, Siggi’s godfather, the “degenerate” artist steadfastly opposes the Nazi regime. Father and godfather both want to harness young Siggi for their own purposes, caging the boy in a web of emotional contradictions, between assimilation and resistance. 50 years after its release, Christian Schwochow brings this atmospheric adaptation of Siegfried Lenz’s timeless world bestseller to the screen. (Zurich Film Festival)