''And Along Come Tourists'' (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

: ''Am Ende kommen Touristen'') is a 2007 German

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film that was written and directed by

Robert Thalheim Robert Thalheim (born July 2, 1974, in Berlin) is a German stage and film director and screenwriter. Thalheim was an assistant director at the ''Berlin Ensemble, Berliner Ensemble'' in 1997–98. He then studied modern German literature, history a ...

. The principal characters are a young German doing

civilian service Alternative civilian service, also called alternative services, civilian service, non-military service, and substitute service, is a form of national service performed in lieu of military conscription for various reasons, such as conscientious o ...

at the former German

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

and an elderly camp survivor living there. Thalheim himself did his civilian service (''Zivildienst'') at the International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim/Auschwitz in 1996–1997, and portions of the film were shot at the Center and in the nearby town of

Oświęcim Oświęcim (; ; ; ) is a town in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship in southern Poland, situated southeast of Katowice, near the confluence of the Vistula (''Wisła'') and Soła rivers. Oświęcim dates back to the 12th century, when it was an im ...

, 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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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 Alexander Fehling is a German film and stage actor. He is best known for portraying Master Sgt. Wilhelm in the 2009 Quentin Tarantino World War II film '' Inglourious Basterds'', and as Jonas Hollander season 5 in the Showtime original series ' ...

as Sven Lehnert and Ryszard Ronczewski as the survivor Stanislaw Krzemiński. Barbara Wysocka plays Ania Łanuszewska, 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 most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

. 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 () 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. As the constitution said ...

(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