Based on the experiences of real people, the film depicts the living conditions of German artists in the context of World War II, the Cold War and the pursuit of artistic freedom, and the director explores the influence of political power and politics on art and human nature from the perspective of the overall historical situation. Some people compare it to the film "Eavesdropping Storm" to explore the impact of German history on elites, but I personally think it is still a lot more superficial than "Eavesdropping Storm".
The film examines the history of Germany over three periods over an hour, which can be divided into three stages by time:
1. During World War II, a girl full of artistic spirit and fond of decadent art styles was treated as a mental illness and sent to the gas chambers as a victim of racial eugenics for the "euthanasia plan". The girl was the aunt of the artist Kurt Barnert, who was just a child at the time.
2. During the East German period, Kurt Barnet, as an "artist", painted the walls every day, depicting paintings of revolutionary themes called social realism, but the mechanical nature was too strong, suppressing artistic personality, forcing the artist to flee to West Germany. Causes people to think: what is the root cause of all this imprisonment due to the rigidity of thinking in the field of art and the inability to innovate?
3. During the West German period, East and West Germany later built the Berlin Wall, and the artist re-studied in West Germany, trying to understand the true meaning of art. He was still tormented by the shadow and trauma of the Nazi period and the East German regime in his childhood, which in turn became a source of inspiration for his work, breaking the claim that painting was dead after photography by copying and blurring the photographs of that year. Works of art still have to move themselves before they can move others.
The evaluation of Kurt Barnet's work: close to history, but also a certain distance from history. According to his answer to a reporter's question: his works are not to be repeated, not to be history for the sake of history, otherwise everyone can look at the photos themselves, and the protagonists of his works have no specific significance. The temperament of the male lead actor Tom Shirin is very close to the artist's temperament, which is very melancholy and exuded noble.
Regarding the importance of art education, here is a passage: in the slums of Vienna in 1914, a 25-year-old young man, whose parents had long since died, had great artistic ambitions and liked to paint, but he failed to enter art school, and in the end he could only sell paintings for a living, and his future was very slim. Later, when the First World War broke out, he chose to join the army, but the Austrian army felt that he was not in good health, so he joined the German army, and after the defeat of Germany, he went undercover in the German Workers' Party, only to find that their views coincided with his own views, advocating an idea called "fascism". This young man was called Adolf Hitler, so it was very important to receive art education, and if Hitler had received formal art education, history might have been rewritten, and it might have added an artist and reduced a war maniac.