A new movement arose in 2001 in German cinema. Some begin to name it the “New Berlin School” but German critics go further and name it the “German Nouvelle Vague” to understand this phenomenon. Three new directors are part of this “new wave”: Angela Schanelec, Thomas Arslan and Christian Petzold. All have studied at the dffb (Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie Berlin) with important artists such as Harun Farocki. The philosophy of this School becomes evident in the indie spirit: a lot of energy and a low budget. Every year, 120 new films are produced.

Here, an introduction to this kind of cinema in five productions. There is coherence among them. These are works whose makers were involved in scriptwriting. There is strong formal rigor; precise plans, correct photography, nothing like any experience of the Danish Dogma. The German directors are very lucid. A return to the idea of social malaise, a source of inadequacy and aggressiveness. But at the core of this German cinematographic culture in the last decade, there rings also the concept of angst. The meaning goes beyond material fear and moves closer to abstraction. A concept word used to express any discomfort, frustration, uncertainty or stress.

Angela Schanelec and Tomas Arslan deal with anguish within families. A family breaks up in the midst of incommunicability. In the film Nachmittag, a disbelieving society consolidates the risks of loss and excessive demands. A mother who is an actress, cold and intelligent; a son who is a writer, unsatisfied and suicidal. In the film Ferien, a family appears to no longer enjoy the bucolic motherly home, which gradually reveals itself to be a place of no rest.

Ulrich Köhler, n the film Bungalow, deals with refusal of the army; a character that is moving out of social insertion, and a society that does not accept desires. In the film Gespenster, Christian Petzold takes us through Nina’s anguish, her sexual identity, her being abandoned, all in a unique experience. And finally, also by Petzold, the film The State I Am In (to be shown in 16mm), which is a more political side of the relation between family and society.

The new wave does not appear to leverage any major esthetic subversion; quite the contrary, it returns to the values of precision, concept and narrative. We understand that the German cinema has never been so impregnated with itself, its culture, its time, as it is now. (F.A)