The film “Nothing New in the West” is supposed to be in the running for the Oscars for Germany. That was decided by a jury in Munich, as German Films, the agency for German film abroad, announced. According to the jury, the adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s almost 100-year-old novel is “disturbingly up-to-date” and makes a “powerful statement against war”. Director Edward Berger made a similar statement. The book, he said, is “unfortunately more relevant today than we expected.” He called the decision to make the film “a very great honor”.
Remarque’s novel was published in 1929 and became a world bestseller translated into 50 languages. He vividly describes the brutality of the trench warfare of the First World War. Young recruits are sent to their deaths by politicians and generals operating far behind the front lines. When the hero Paul Bäumer was shot dead by a sniper shortly before the end of the war, the army report reported succinctly: “Nothing new in the West”.
Edward Berger’s adaptation is the first German film version of the subject. When the Hollywood film adaptation of Lewis Milestone was released in cinemas in 1930, there were sharp protests in Germany because of its pacifist attitude. The Nazis organized a campaign and disrupted film screenings by detonating stink bombs or releasing white mice. An American TV adaptation was made in 1979.
Berger will now see the Viennese Burgtheater actor Felix Kammerer in the leading role. Other performers include Daniel Brühl, Albrecht Schuch, Michael Wittenborn and Devid Striesow. The Netflix production will be in cinemas on September 29th and will be available on the streaming service from October 28th. Berger became known with his drama “Jack”, which ran in competition at the Berlinale in 2014. He was also successful with the spy TV series “Deutschland 83”, most recently he directed several episodes of the series “Your Honor”.
In the German preselection, “Nothing New in the West” prevailed against eight competitors, including “Dear Kurt” by Til Schweiger, “Everything in the best order” by Natja Brunckhorst, “The Passport Forger” by Maggie Peren and “Rabiye Kurnaz against George W .Bush” by Andreas Dresen, who received the Silver Bears at the Berlinale for the screenplay and leading actress Meltem Kaptan.
