Berlin and Germany in Two Film Adaptations of Alfred Döblin’s Novel Berlin Alexanderplatz Cover Image

Berlin i Niemcy w dwóch adaptacjach filmowych powieści Alfreda Döblina Berlin Alexanderplatz
Berlin and Germany in Two Film Adaptations of Alfred Döblin’s Novel Berlin Alexanderplatz

Author(s): Jacek Nowakowski
Subject(s): Cultural history, Political history, Social history, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Sociology of Art
Published by: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie Studia Polonistyczne
Keywords: film adaptation; postcolonialism; German society; Weimar Republic;

Summary/Abstract: The subject of this paper is the image of Berlin and Germany that emerges from two film adaptations of the novel Berlin Alexanderplatz. The first one, a 1980 TV series by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, closely follows the letter and spirit of the original 1929 novel; we see a faithful recreation of the material world and the mindset of German society in the final years of the Weimar Republic. In the second one, a 2021 cinema production by Burhan Qurbani, the plot is modernised. The main context of the film is the plight of refugees and economic migrants in contemporary Germany and the problems portrayed are linked to issues of race and post-colonialism.

  • Issue Year: 2023
  • Issue No: 44
  • Page Range: 49-68
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: Polish