''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 Oświęcim/Auschwitz The International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim/Auschwitz is an educational institution whose campus lies between the center of the Polish city of Oświęcim and the former German concentration camp of Auschwitz. More than one million persons ...

in 1996–1997, and portions of the film were shot at the Center and in the nearby town of

Oświęcim Oświęcim (; german: Auschwitz ; yi, אָשפּיצין, Oshpitzin) is a city in the Lesser Poland ( pl, Małopolska) province of southern Poland, situated southeast of Katowice, near the confluence of the Vistula (''Wisła'') and Soła rive ...

, 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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

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 Ryszard Ronczewski (27 June 1930 – 17 October 2020) was a Polish actor. He appeared in more than seventy films from 1954 to 2021 (the premiere of '' The Wedding'' occurred a few months after his death). Ronczewski died from COVID-19 on 17 Octo ...

as the survivor Stanislaw Krzemiński. Barbara Wysocka plays Ania Łanuszewskaa, a young Polish woman from Oświęcim with whom Sven develops a romantic relationship. The film premièred on 16 August 2007 in Germany; its North American première was on 12 September 2007 at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

. 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." Jürgen 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 German Film Award for Best Fiction Film (german: Bester Spielfilm) is the main award given for best German film at the annual Deutscher Filmpreis awards, the German national film awards. It has been held annually since 1951 in varying formats. A ...

(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

External links

* Official website for film. *
Trailer
2007 films 2000s German-language films 2007 drama films Films about the aftermath of the Holocaust Films set in Poland German drama films German prison films 2000s German films {{2000s-Germany-film-stub

References

Further reading

External links