Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Une jeunesse allemande" or "A German Youth" is a 90-minute documentary from 2015, so still a relatively new and fresh film. It is a co-production between France, Switzerland and Germand and from the French original title you see already that this is by a Frenchman, namely still relatively young, yet pretty experienced filmmaker Jean-Gabriel Périot. He received a great deal of awards recognition for his works already and this one here is no exception. While not scoring any attention in Germany, it got in at awards bodies all over the world, including a Best Documentary nomination at the Césars, the French Film Awards. The subject here is left-wing terrorism in Germany several decades ago. Yes the focus here is once again on Baader, Meinhof and the RAF terror in Germany. It is a subject that was done really many many times before and I would not really say that the film has anything particularly new to offer, but that's not a problem. The great quantity of old recordings still make it worth a watch and there are interesting references in terms of film, like one of the members being prolific in German (short) film too or at the very end the Fassbinder references. I believe this is very much worth watching for everybody with an interest in the subject like myself. I also liked the somewhat chronological structure of it all, but that's obviously just personal preference. The biggest strengths are the many video (and audio) recordings from a time long passed, but still in the face of what happened by violent radical left wing demonstrators at the G20 summit in Hamburg not long ago, it is still a film with current relevance and it may remind us of how we should not let things reach such a level again as during the RAF days, which is also an important message as the German main stream media basically ignore every kind of terrorism and extremism that does not come from the far right. Anyway, I am getting a bit away from the film now and that's why I will end my review now. With a positive recommendation, that is. Go see it.
