NEVER LOOK AWAY

NEVER LOOK AWAY (WERK OHNE AUTOR), 2018
Germany | DCP, Color, 188' | German, Russian
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Cast: Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer

Germany’s submission for this year’s Oscars is inspired by the life of Gerhard Richter, often regarded as one of the greatest living painters.The film also bears many traces of the turbulent history of 20th-century Germany. The young artist, who is called Kurt Barner in the story, has emigrated to West Germany, but hasn’t recovered from the traumas of his childhood under Nazi Germany. His involvement with art is interrupted first by the rejection of modernism by the Nazis, then by the communists who only accept social realism as an art form. At school, Kurt meets the love of his life, Ellie, thanks to whom he begins to create works that reflect not only his own fate, but also the traumas of an entire generation.