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And Along Come Tourists
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Wikipedia article
'And Along Come Tourists' is a 2007 German dramatic film that was written and directed by Robert Thalheim. The principal characters are a young German doing civilian service at the former German Auschwitz concentration camp and an elderly camp survivor living there. Thalheim himself did his civilian service ('Zivildienst') at the International Youth Meeting Center in Owicim/Auschwitz in 19961997, and portions of the film were shot at the Center and in the nearby town of Owicim, Poland. Filming was not permitted at the site of the concentration camp itself, where more than one million persons had been murdered by the end of the Second World War in 1945.
The film's title in German, 'Am Ende kommen Touristen', is taken from a volume of poetry published by in 2000.
The principal performers are Alexander Fehling as Sven Lehnert and Ryszard Ronczewski as the survivor Stanislaw Krzemiski. Barbara Wysocka plays Ania anuszewskaa, a young Polish woman from Owicim with whom Sven develops a romantic relationship.
The film premired on 16 August 2007 in Germany; its North American premire was on 12 September 2007 at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2010 and 2011 the film was broadcast on German television. The Eberhard Fechner Award is a special award given annually in conjunction with the Grimme Prize for German television productions.
In 2007 Bonnie J. Gordon wrote of the film that it is "a quiet triumph ... economically blends modern life's truths, such as the fragility of 20-something love affairs, with universal themes, such as the search for meaning and the human need to expiate guilt." Jrgen Fauth wrote "Without ever resorting to preachiness, Thalheim, who was a 'Zivi' at Auschwitz himself, offers incisive insights into the thorny contradictions and treacherous cross-currents of guilt and memory that turn any kind of exploration of the overbearing past into a minefield."
The film was nominated for the German Film Award for Best Fiction Film (the "Lola"). Alexander Fehling received the (Advancement Prize for New German Cinema) for his performance as Sven. A version of the film was broadcast on German television in 2010 and 2011, for which Robert Thalheim won the .
A DVD version of the film was released in Europe in 2008. 82 minutes. Subtitles in German only. A region 1 DVD (for North America) has not been released.
References
Further reading
* Joint interview of Thalheim, Hans-Christian Schmid, and Britta Knller about the film.
* This academic article discusses the film in the larger context of Holocaust remembrance and memorials in the 21st century, and contains citations to several related articles.
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