BERLIN: The highest grossing German movie last year was a fizzy feel-good summer comedy about the country’s refugee influx, “Welcome to the Hartmanns.”
Just a year on, German screens are darkening with “Club Europa,” a sobering take on the challenges and dilemmas in the newcomers’ integration that mirrors a growing national sense of ambivalence.
The new movie by 32-year-old Franziska Hoenisch, broadcast on public television ZDF on Thursday, tells the story of a group of young Berlin flatmates who decide to take in a refugee from Cameroon named Samuel.
The Berliners show the newcomer the capital’s famous techno scene and demonstrate how to use a potato peeler while explaining to Samuel that he has arrived in “potato country.”
But the light tone of the movie soon grows ominous as Samuel’s asylum request is rejected by the authorities.
The young adults must now decide if they would keep hosting him even though his residence status is now in limbo.
“We didn’t want to just make a movie about people who succeed, which comforts the viewer and gives the impression that all is well,” Hoenisch told AFP.
The filmmaker said she deliberately centered the movie around young adults in the hopes of shaking them out of their comfort bubble to take responsibilities for their action.
“The people of my generation talk a lot, we want to be politically correct and involved, but deep down, we don’t do much,” said the young director.
“We don’t channel our energy toward changing things for the better, but more to build our personal happiness,” she said.
“It’s not enough to just assuage our bad conscience by helping a little.”
Germany saw a record influx of asylum seekers, reaching 1.1 million over 2015 and 2016.
The arrival of tens of thousands of asylum seekers cheered by volunteers handing out food, water and teddy bears at German rail stations became the defining image then.
Chancellor Angela Merkel was able to tap into a wellspring of empathy for the asylum seekers, particularly those fleeing war-ravaged Syria.
However, that enthusiasm has turned into doubts about Europe’s biggest economy’s ability to integrate so many people so quickly, and filmmaking is catching up to that reality.
Refugee drama ‘Club Europa’ hits German screens
Refugee drama ‘Club Europa’ hits German screens
Japan’s beloved last pandas leave for China as ties fray
TOKYO: Two popular pandas are set to leave Tokyo for China Tuesday, leaving Japan without any of the beloved bears for the first time in 50 years as ties between the Asian neighbors fray.
Panda twins Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao are due to be transported by truck out of Ueno Zoological Gardens, their birthplace, disappointing many Japanese fans who have grown attached to the furry four-year-olds.
“Although I can’t see them, I came to share the same air with them and to say, ‘Hope you’ll be OK,’” one woman visiting the zoo told public broadcaster NHK.
The pandas’ abrupt return was announced last month during a diplomatic spat that began when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hinted that Tokyo could intervene militarily in the event of an attack on Taiwan.
Her comment provoked the ire of Beijing, which regards the island as its own territory.
The distinctive black-and-white animals, loaned out as part of China’s “panda diplomacy,” have symbolized friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since they normalized diplomatic ties in 1972.
Their repatriation comes a month before their loan period expires in February, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which operates Ueno Zoo.
Japan has reportedly been seeking the loan of a new pair of pandas.
However, a weekend poll by the liberal Asahi Shimbun newspaper showed that 70 percent of those surveyed do not think the government should negotiate with China on the lease of new pandas, while 26 percent would like them to.
On Sunday, Ueno Zoo invited some 4,400 lucky winners of an online lottery to see the pandas for the last time.
Passionate fans without tickets still turned out at the park, sporting panda-themed shirts, bags and dolls to demonstrate their love of the animals.
China has discouraged its nationals from traveling to Japan, citing deteriorating public security and criminal acts against Chinese nationals in the country.
Beijing is reportedly also choking off exports to Japan of rare-earth products crucial for making everything from electric cars to missiles.
However, China routinely removes pandas from foreign countries and the latest move may not be politically motivated, said Masaki Ienaga, a professor at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and an expert in East Asian international relations.
“If you talk about (Chinese) politics, the timing of sending pandas is what counts,” and pandas could return to Japan if bilateral ties warm, he said.
Other countries use animals as tools of diplomacy, including Thailand with its elephants and Australia with its koalas, he added.
“But pandas are special,” he said. “They have strong customer-drawing power, and... they can earn money.”
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