Never Look Away 2018

Never Look Away 2018
Werk ohne Autor (original title)
R | 3h 9min | Biography, Drama, Romance | 4 September 2018 (Italy)

Storyline:

Young artist Kurt Barnert (Tom Schilling) has fled to West-Germany, but he continues to be tormented by the experiences he made in his childhood and youth in the Nazi years and during the DDR-regime. When he meets the student Ellie (Paula Beer), he is convinced that he has met the love of his life and begins to create paintings that mirror not only his own fate, but also the traumas of an entire generation.

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
Rated R for graphic nudity, sexuality and brief violent images

User review:

This captivating and moving movie is essentially based on encounters, fortuitous or not, of good omen or not, in Germany, GDR and then FRG.

Professor Carl Seeband (Sebastian Koch) is a brilliant gynecologist, cold and completely devoid of empathy. His ‘talent’ will enable him to become an imminent member of the Nazi Party and to actively work in the eugenics process in order to improve the ‘racial hygiene’. Kurt Barnert (Tom Schilling) is a young artist whose inspiration seems to be animated by repressed memories of his aunt Elisabeth May (Saskia Rosendahl), who mysteriously lost her mind during the rise of Nazism in the 30s, then silently ‘disappeared’ just before the Second World War: Elizabeth’s fate will end at a fatal meeting with Professor Carl Seeband. A few years later, Kurt Barnert will accidentally fall in love with Ellie Seeband (Paula Beer), the only daughter of Professor Carl Seeband.

Freely inspired by the life of Gerhard Richter, the film describes the three decades of a black and then red Germany, struck by two destructive ideologies, before being sold to capitalism. Without reaching the near-perfectness of Das Leben der Anderen (2006), this film is excellent: casting of first choice, neat photography, dialogues skillfully written, captivating scenario, a clever mix of sensual and sweet scenes alternately with cold and depressing other ones

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Writer: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Stars: Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer
Country: Germany | Italy
Language: German | Russian
Release Date: 4 September 2018 (Italy)
Also Known As: Work Without Author
Filming Locations: Berlin, Germany