THE STORY – Amrum Island, spring 1945. Nanning is a 12-year-old boy who goes seal hunting, fishing at night and toils in the fields to help his mother feed the family. When peace is declared, completely new conflicts arise, and Nanning must learn to find his own way.
THE CAST – Diane Kruger, Laura Tonke, Jasper Billerbeck, Detlev Buck, Lisa Hagmeister & Matthias Schweighöfer
THE TEAM – Fatih Akin (Director/Writer) & Hark Bohm (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 93 Minutes
Are two films enough to declare a trend? For the second time in as many days, the Cannes Film Festival has seen a protegé director release a film credited to their mentor. This is a nightmare for advocates of auteur theory, but when you watch these films, you understand the reasoning. First, Robin Campillo used “Enzo” to pay tribute to the late Laurent Cantet, and now Turkish-German firebrand Fatih Akin pulls a similar move to do right by his collaborator. “Amrum” is credited as “A film by Hark Bohm, directed by Akin.” Bohm might be best known as a recurring actor in the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, but he and Akin have enjoyed a successful writing partnership over several years and films. “Amrum” is Bohm’s fictionalized retelling of a challenging part of his childhood, and Akin adapts Bohm’s script in a spirit of gratitude. It’s a bracingly mature and thoughtful film, at once aimed at a young adult audience while confronting them with the realities of succumbing to the worst impulses of inflamed political groupthink.
Amrum is one of the North Frisian islands, located in the German portion of the North Sea, near the Danish border. It has a defined sense of self, including its own language (Öömrang), costumes, and customs. These identifiers are so strong that anything that veers from these norms is bound to stand out, especially anything from a culture that wants to subjugate all others. It’s April 1945, and the home of young Nanning (Newcomer Jasper Billerbeck) appears to be the only one on the island flying the swastika outside. His family, a bunch of ranking Nazi blow-ins, are the exception to the norms of Amrum. Hundreds of miles from Berlin, Amrum is an oasis from the war, where the locals get on with their lives in the face of reduced supplies and an uncertain outcome. It’s a side of wartime Germany that isn’t seen onscreen too often, perhaps because it complicates the image of the country history needs us to recognize. The film opens with a fleet of Messerschmidts dropping ballast in the sea just off the island, but this is the closest we get to any wartime action.
Nanning is a dutiful little boy. He helps his neighbor Tessa (Akin regular Diane Kruger) plow her field to plant sorely-needed potatoes, he helps his pregnant mother (Laure Tonke) as she approaches her due date, and he dons his Hitler Youth uniform to go out on errands. Bohm’s script never attributes any active hatred to Nanning. That might sound self-serving on Bohm’s part, but “Amrum” is keen to give Nanning the benefit of the doubt. After all, he is still just a child. From “Sound of Falling” to “Left-Handed Girl,” the notable child characters of the Cannes selection are witnesses to actions taken by adults that they can’t possibly understand. Nanning’s soldier father is a prisoner of war, and thus his primary influence is his mother parroting Nazi talking points about the Fatherland. However, the family’s neighbors offer perspective, embracing their local traditions rather than the Party line. The island becomes separated from the nearest island at high tide, and the tide of change is set to drown these Party loyalists.
Part of the reason the inhabitants of Amrum cling to their way of life is the island is a beautiful place to live. As shot by Karl Walter Lindenlaub, the spring days are filled with hazy sunshine, and the moon turns the cloudless nights from black to ethereally cerulean. This being a war film of sorts, such visual choices can come across as overly tasteful, and there are moments when it threatens to become “The Boy In The Striped Beach House.” This could be expected; “Amrum” is a Warner Bros. production with a younger target audience. However, while this is a relatively commercial prospect for Akin, he and the script are smart enough to avoid placating the audience. As the war comes to a close, and the resentment of the Nazis that was fermenting among the inhabitants of Amrum is unleased in a variety of microaggressions, it is clear that Nanning and his family are not going to be allowed to sidestep their share of national guilt. Any suggestions that “Amrum” is sympathetic to their plight are unfounded. Its primary concern is what all of this means for young Nanning going forward.
The cast of “Amrum” is a large part of why it works. Billerbeck is an ideal combination of childish looks and fortitude, as Nanning defies his family, neighbors, and even the elements to fulfill his duties. This is especially endearing when his primary focus is procuring the ingredients for the loaf of white bread for which his nursing and depressed mother yearns. The adult cast, from Lisa Hagmeister as Nanning’s objector aunt to Marek Harloff’s scarred baker veteran, all point Nanning and us away from the demands of his uniform. As Germany surrenders and the committed Party members that Nanning encounters struggle to comprehend the end of their nefarious dream, “Amrum” gives pause for thought. Living in a time when far-right sentiment is on the rise again, we are invited to think about what such beliefs really want and whether they can be swayed. Maintaining a front of professional soldiers and dutiful hausfrauen is hard when all you want is a loaf of bread.
“Amrum” grapples with its themes smartly and accessibly, knowing its audience and giving them enough crumbs to think on. Bohm lived through these events, and Akin helps him convey the painful lessons of that period with skill and grace.
