TIFF '18 Film Review - Never Look Away

Aunt Elizabeth (Saskia Rosendahl) is the focal point of the first frames of Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck new film Never Look Away. von Donnersmarck who burst on the scene with his rookie film The Lives of Others that won the Best Foreign Language film in 2007 goes back to a subject matter he knows for his third feature. Aunt Elisabeth takes her toddler nephew Kurt to an exhibit of Degenerate Art in 1937 Dresden signaling a move away from all things foreign and a move back to homegrown German. Elisabeth pays attention to her nephew seeing his talent wanting him to flourish.  She is freewheeling , carefree and unfiltered dangerous characteristics to have in a country that is moving more to the totalitarian side as Adolph Hitler consolidates power. Elisabeth tells her nephew in a moment of pure clarity's the allied bombs fall in Dresden to never look away. Everything that is true is beautiful.

Jump forward to post-war partitioned East Germany where a leading Nazi Docktor who was involved in weeding out inferior members of society saves himself by delivering a breached child of the new Russian commander. Kurt (Tom Shilling) also survives going to art school where he's forced to use his talents on projects that promote socialism. At school, he meets Ellie (Paula Beer) falling for her fast but feeling inferior to her families high status in the city as most East Germans struggled post-war. The pair eventually make their way to Dusseldorf in the west where Kurt gets into a prestigious art school but is pressed by his father in law as he struggles to find his way.

von Donnersmark  tells a story with a very long run time of over three hours but it's perfectly paced with every scene having a purpose that the viewer may not realize until later in the production. Nothing throwaway is put on screen. The writing is carefully done to build a relationship between the characters some not revealed until long after that initial kernel is dropped.

Never Look Away is a project by a director back on firm footing. The link between the initial central character Aunt Elizabeth and her nephew Kurt is unbreakable with the latter showing many of the former's traits as he grows to adulthood. The story of Dresden from the rise of Naziism, thought the war, reconstruction, and spell behind the iron curtain is a fascinating time to bring to the screen. Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel eye finds, beauty in the post-war rubble, the sprawling fields of the mid 50's and two wonderful bookend scenes of the co-leads conducting a symphony using a chorus of public bus horns as the instruments.

**** Out of 4.

Never Look Away | Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck | Germany/ Italy  | 2018 | 188 Minutes.

Tags: Dresden, Nazi Germany, Sterilization, Death Camp, World War II, Soviet Union, Berlin Wall, Art School, Alexander Platz,  Kurfurstendamm Station, Art Exhibit.