Achtung

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I am taking (or took) up the German language. Just for the fun of it, of course. Nothing major.

The sad thing is now that Frou Maria is pregnant and her OBGYN appointment is on Thursdays, we don't have regular classes. Even when we do have class, we watch German movies.

The first German movie we watched was a romantic comedy called Barfuss, which means barefoot. If you like romantic comedies but can't stand the typical American ending, then this is definitely the movie for you. I absolutely love the tag line which basically translates to 'How far will you go for love'? This movie has a good dose of humour and the lines are absolutely hilarious, one of a kind. Two thumbs up for my first German movie.

The second one we watched is called Die Welle- The Wave. This movie has a slightly darker theme as a high school teacher decides to make his students understand fascism and dictatorship by 'experimenting' on them. The question in the first lesson was "Are we really that gullible in succumbing to dictatorship like in the days of Hitler". All students said that they're modern and they should be able to discern between right and wrong. When the teacher made them subconsciously aware of working as a unit, the students jumped right in the bandwagon. At first the students, irrespective of nerds, jocks, the popular and the bottom of the social hierarchy stuck together through thick and thin. However, things started spiralling out of control. This is where I leave you hanging wondering what happened *evil laugh*. If you want to watch it, be prepared for character death and mentions of dictatorship.

The last movie we recently watched is called NAPOLA- National Political Academy- a high school that produces Nazi elite. Another Nazi themed movie set in the 1940s. The main male character in this movie also had the spotlight in Die Welle. He plays a young boy, Freidrich Wiemer, who gets into this elite high school with a boxing scholarship (not really, but it's easier to understand if I put it that way). To get into this school, one must fulfill certain criterion. Among them are blonde hair, blue eyes, tall and strong. Sounds like Hitler's dream of creating the Aria race, no? Over his father's objection, Friedrich runs away from home and enrolls in the school. The movie basically highlights the struggles all boys in that school to come up to par with the Nazi's expectations that they kill the Jews mercilessly, among other things. Some have been brainwashed to think that they're doing this for a greater good but Friedrich and his friend Albrecht(the son of the headmaster in the school) saw that this was wrong. After a tragedy involving Albrecht (no, I won't tell you what happened to him), Friedrich decides that he cannot stay in that school anymore and deliberately gets himself expelled. Another very dark movie with character death. However, this movie is rather slow-paced as I went out for about an hour, resumed the movie after that and I still managed to understand the movie.

The next movie Frou Maria said she'd bring for us to watch is about the German concentration camps and basically revolving around the gassing chambers. I hope it's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I can't wait :D

Signing out,
oh-noes-the-weekend-is-over