Conflict and Survival in Contemporary Western European Film

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, efforts to improve human rights, social equality, and democracy in western Europe have faced growing challenges that range from economic and medical crises to the resurgence of the tribalist far right. Studying western European cinema reveals how filmmakers have been using their art to reflect on the regions contemporary problems and potentials.

InConflict and Survival in Contemporary Western European Film, John Alexander Williams and Alexandra Hagen have collected a diverse array of essays that analyzehow filmmakers have portrayed forms of strifeand endurancein the new century. Divided into three thematic sectionshistorical conflicts and national identities; migrants, natives, and battles over space; and ethical struggles in everyday lifethis book offers case studies of historical context, narrative, and form in a range of significant recent films.

Showcasing such movies as Days of Glory, A War, Code Unknown, The Edge of Heaven, Toni Erdmann, The Great Beauty,andWeekend,this fascinating collection presents contemporary filmmakers as critical citizen-artists who are directly involved in interrogating the past, present, and future of Europe.

John Alexander Williamsis professor of modern European and German history at Bradley University. He is the author ofTurning to Nature in Germany: Hiking, Nudism, and Conservation, 1900-1940and the editor ofBerlin Since the Walls End: Shaping Society and Memory in the German Metropolis since 1989 andWeimar Culture Revisited: Studies in European Culture and History.

Alexandra Hagen is visiting assistant professor at the New College of Florida. Her research interests include twenty-first-century German literature and film as well as second language acquisition. She has edited two volumes of the journalFocus on German Studies. Her work has also appeared inMonatshefte andDie Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German.

Foreword, Alexandra Hagen and John A. Williams

Part I: Historical Memory and National Identity: Representations of the Violent 20th Century

1. Who Gets to Be a National Hero? The Representation of North African Muslims inDays of Glory andFree Men, Priscilla Charrat Nelson
2. Screen Warriors: Danish Soldiers and National Identity inApril 9thandA War, Ian Roberts
3. Escaping the Labyrinth of Silence: Cultural Change and the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials in Contemporary German Film, Susanne Lenné Jones
4. Normalizing the Nazi Past in German Comedy? The Complexities of Laughter inLook Whos Back, Marina Durnin

Part II: Moving to and from Western Europe: Migrants, Their Enemies, and Their Allies

5. Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Contemporary German Film: Portrayals of a Nation between Tolerance and Xenophobia inWe Are Young. We Are StrongandA Very German Welcome, Markus Spitz
6. Transnational Mobility and Migration inThe Edge of Heaven,Sarra Kassem
7. Eastern Passage: Emigration from Romania to Western Europe inCode UnknownandOccident,Maria Ioni

Part III: Personhood: Everyday Lives and Ethical Values

8. Toni Erdmann: A Thought-Provoking Depiction of European Modernization Processes, Patricia de Almeida Kruger and Marcos Soares
9. The Kindness of Men: Compassion inThe Great BeautyandWeekend, John Alexander Williams