Actually Fernglück is a film mostly
financed by television. it was a brilliant idea to make a little
tour through some German film theatres before its premiere at the
television channel 3Sat. And it was worth to see it on the big screen.
To begin with , Fernglück, the most
recent film by Bangladeshi-German filmmaker Shaheen Dill-Riaz is his
finest piece of film since his shameless underrated masterpiece Shilpo Shahor Shapnalok (The Happiest People in the World,
2005).
Even though Dill-Riaz spent the first half of his life in his native country Bangladesh and the second one in Germany (only interrupted through long travels to Bangladesh), he travels with us again to Bangladesh and there is not even a trace of smart alecky statements but pure cinema. As he follows some young German women and men who went to Bangladesh as voluntaries for developement aid, he does not give a statement about the encounter of different cultures, he explores them with his camera like he explored his new home Germany as a young man in the early 1990s. Even more important - he respects the idealism of the young people.He talks, listens to these young people and records their journey. In more than one way, it echoes his most personal film The Happiest People in the World where his own biography is confronted with the biography of some people in Dhaka (most of them close to him). Almost in the sense of André Bazin, in both of these films there is a confidence in film and its reflection of reality which does not need any ideological predetermination. Cinema seems here as a quest. Some questions are answered, others not.
Even though Dill-Riaz spent the first half of his life in his native country Bangladesh and the second one in Germany (only interrupted through long travels to Bangladesh), he travels with us again to Bangladesh and there is not even a trace of smart alecky statements but pure cinema. As he follows some young German women and men who went to Bangladesh as voluntaries for developement aid, he does not give a statement about the encounter of different cultures, he explores them with his camera like he explored his new home Germany as a young man in the early 1990s. Even more important - he respects the idealism of the young people.He talks, listens to these young people and records their journey. In more than one way, it echoes his most personal film The Happiest People in the World where his own biography is confronted with the biography of some people in Dhaka (most of them close to him). Almost in the sense of André Bazin, in both of these films there is a confidence in film and its reflection of reality which does not need any ideological predetermination. Cinema seems here as a quest. Some questions are answered, others not.
I remember the night after the
screening in Berlin which I attended with a friend. We talked the
whole night about the film and its protagonists. In my memory they
began soon after the film ended a life of their own. If something like
that happens in a documentary film, that means for me always the
evidence of having seen a great film.
If there are a trace of the philosophy
of Shaheen Dill Riaz where I can put my finger on than it is one can
understand himself better when one can understand the other.
the different reactions of these young Germany are captured equally. One
young man will break up his stay in Bangladesh very early. Another
young man who is first very motivated resigns after some months of
demoralization. We see him searching in water samples from different
water pumps in villages for the dangerous poison arsenic. All samples
are negative and the young man doubts if the method of analyzing the
water is properly at all.
Most of the young women seem to deal
much better with the clash between their idealism and the local
reality. One of these young woman gets friendly with a female teacher
in a village but it is hard for her to accept her subordination as a woman to her family, as a second wife of a man. These confrontation
of idealism and reality is often tragic. If these confrontations seem
impossible to overcome, Fernglück unfolds as well moments of humor.
There is this unforgettable tea house scene when one of the young
woman talks with an old man about what is possible in Germany, how to
love, marry or how to have relationships. The translator translates
in his own way. At the same time we laugh about the predeterminations
of the Bengalis and the Germans. But this laughter is not a laughter
on the cost of these protagonists, it is a laughter we have with them
together. Especially in these invincibly borders between two
cultures, this laughter has a very special relieving character.
During the film was made, a tragic accident
happens. A textile factory collapses with more than 1000 dead
persons, mostly women. Some of the young Germans visit survivors in the
hospital. One of the survivors, a young woman who lost an arm and
was buried for days under the ruins of the factory before she was rescued. To a German woman with jeans and a Kurta she explains that
these kind of jeans were made in these factories. The young German
tries to cover with the Kurta her jeans with a bashful smile. This is
a wonderful, almost John Ford-like moment about the borders between different cultures without any judgement. The young survivor has a
strange and disturbing sarcasm.
In Dhaka manifestations against war
criminals who were responsible for the genocide of Pakistanis against
Bengalis during the Liberation war in the 1970s. Some young people,
among them a German are demonstrating against the death penalty which
is claimed by most of the Bengali protester. Very subtle, Shaheen Dill-Riaz
build in information about the history of Bangladesh which is hardly known in
Germany.
As the situations for the young Germans
becomes very risky they will be sent back to Germany. Unfinished
business but the film itself is a very rich journey and some of these young people will stay connected with this country.
True, there are still questions which
remain unanswered for us, for the young Germans but as well for the
filmmaker himself. But Fernglück answers the question what cinema
can be,:a quest how to define the own place in the universe while
confronted with the Unknown. Even though we know the world outside of
each frame is very keen and not always easy to understand, in each of
the film´s frame I feel a kind of protection – for the
protagonists and for myself. This beautiful, tender, sad and
sometimes funny piece of cinema belongs to the big screen and finally
– it is with Patricio Guzman´s masterpiece El Botón de Nacár the
first great documentaries of this year.
Rüdiger Tomczak
the film is still available in the
mediathek of 3Sat (only in German and only available in Germany
Switzerland and Austria)
