FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Volker Schlöndorf - Die Blechtrommel

The difficult thing about allegories: If you present them all too convincingly, they can no longer stand for anything else. All right? Is Volker Schlöndorff's classic a story about the cruelty of the world? Or the story of a disgusting boy? The boy's name is Oskar and on his third birthday he decides not to grow any further. Because the world is too cruel. Normally The Tin Drum is understood as an ode to childhood. According to the motto: The innocence of the child vs. the cruel world of National Socialism. We see this world through Oskar's eyes. The difficult thing is that Oskar himself is not a popular figure. On the contrary - he is at least a difficult character. Can we stand him? Günther Grass worked on the script alongside Schlöndorff, which is logical. Finally he wrote the underlying novel, which in turn is based on his own biography. Oskar is Grass. Oskar's world is divided. He was born in Gdansk. Just like Grass. Back then, after the First World War, Germans and Poles lived together in Gdansk without ever getting along. For inexplicable reasons, Oskar carries both nationalities within him. Around him, nationalistic chauvinism. Therefore he wants to stop growing and falls down the cellar stairs. From then on, he wanders the world, beating his tin drum (which he always carries with him) and screams so loudly that glass breaks. Do you notice anything? The tin drum could play just as well today, since the same nationalism is strengthening in Germany and Poland. In any case, Oskar confuses a Nazi band with his tin drum and causes unrest. Allegorical restlessness. That is and remains difficult: an annoying child who carries the drum as a moral symbol. When was the last time a German film challenged you so much? But the time has long since come!