Film Tom Tykwer: "We're sitting there like plucked chickens"
German director Tom Tykwer ("Run Lola Run", "Babylon Berlin") considers the current political mood in Germany to be worrying. He expressed his concern on the occasion of the upcoming opening of the Berlinale with his film "Das Licht".
12.02.2025, 06:17
SDA
"We're sitting there like plucked chickens, totally disheveled, overwhelmed by all the contradictions that have overwhelmed us in the last ten or twenty years," Tykwer (59) told the German news agency DPA.
Europe has become so fragile. "Democracy as an idea is actually up for debate or questioned again." Ecologically, we have been left behind from any chance of keeping pace with what is happening in nature. "I think we are at great risk of giving up the reins completely," emphasized the filmmaker. "And the question is: who will catch it?"
Everyone can see that forces are currently forming that are aiming to fragment society. "They don't see cohesion as a special, primary goal, but rather have a tendency towards exclusion and marginalization," said Tykwer.
Tykwer's film opens the Berlinale for the third time
"And they submit to the progressive rule of the market and capital. It's shocking to me how much many of us surrender to this: that the free market is the greatest constant of power in our present."
Tykwer's new film "The Light" with Lars Eidinger and Nicolette Krebitz opens the 75th edition of the Berlinale on Thursday evening. It is about a torn Berlin family whose lives are changed by a Syrian housekeeper. The film festival ends on February 23 - the day of the German parliamentary elections.
"Never before has a film suited the Berlinale so well for me"
"The Light" is the director's third opening film at the Berlinale after "The International" (2009) and "Heaven" (2002). "It's the third opening film for me, but it's actually the first film in German. The other two were in English and Italian respectively," said Tykwer.
"Das Licht" is also the first real Berlin film that he has been allowed to show at the film festival. "It comes from this city, it was made by Berliners. In this respect, never before has a film suited the Berlinale so well for me." The new director Tricia Tuttle is "a great gift for the city".
