Ashes and Diamonds

For all the stardust that we associate with the Kodak Theatre and the golden lady,there’s something very pompous,very misleading,and to sum up,very American about the Oscars. Seven years after German filmmaker Caroline Link bagged the Academy Award for Nowhere in Africa (2001),Hollywood has not actually come knocking at her doorstep. “You can’t over-value an Oscar. It’s very glamorous,the American film industry celebrates itself with the Oscars,but artistically speaking,there’s a lot left to be desired,” says Link,in city,for the 15th Kolkata Film Festival. Having said that,she admits that it would have been a nice feeling to hold the statuette and be witness to the applause when her award was announced seven years back. Link,who had just had a baby,had decided to stay back in Munich with the child that year. Her first film,Beyond Silence (1996) had also received a nomination. “Nobody recognized me. It was fun… star-spotting that is,Angelina Jolie,Tom Cruise… but they couldn’t be bothered with me,” laughs Link. Her experience,post-Oscars also brings to fore,the implications of an Academy Award in the Foreign Language film category. “America is not very interested in subtitled films. Producers recognize you after the award,but they toy with ideas,discuss things but don’t seem too keen on making a film with you. Unless of course of have a big star to back it,” explains Link. “I never really wanted to move to Hollywood… I mean do all that I can to go there,” she adds with a smile.

Link’s first film,about a girl born to speech and hearing impaired parents,was followed by Annaluise and Anton (1998),Nowhere in Africa (2001) and most recently A Year Ago in Winter (2008). Link’s subjects,like that of German-Jewish immigrants in Kenya in Nowhere… are those that strike a chord with her almost instantaneously. The film,based on the life of Stefanie Zweig,whose family fled Nazi Germany to Africa,introduced Link to untold stories from her country. “Before starting the film,I didn’t know that there were so many Jews who had fled the country and sought shelter in Africa and South America,” she says. At the same time,Link tries to prevent her films from becoming sermons on socio-political paradoxes. “I don’t feel the need to educate people. My subconscious is influenced by the world around me. So if you see a complicated world in my film,it’s because the world around me has become difficult,” says Link.

While the responsibility to introduce the contemporary Germany to the world is not something that weighs heavily down on the Munich-based filmmaker,she finds the popular depiction of Germany in Hollywood films a little problematic. When you mention how the American film industry never tires of the Holocaust,World War and the Berlin Wall,Link mentions that contemporary German filmmakers and audiences are a little ‘fed-up’ with the subjects. “America thinks these are popular subjects to sell to other countries,” says Link. Inglourious Basterds,however,seems to have struck a chord with the Germany today. “There have been so many dark depressing films about the war. Tarantino’s film almost came as a relief. It’s mad,irreverent,people have taken to the new approach really well back home,though I heard Jews in America hated it,” she laughs.

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Indian cinema has eluded Munich,her hometown,for long now. “I have seen Mira Nair’s films. But I was told that it wasn’t the real India. And as for Slumdog Millionaire,I found it very disturbing. It tries to be feel-good but has some very brutal moments,” says Link.

At present,Link is busy working out a script from Sigmund Freud’s stories of psychoanalysis. “At times,I get complicated as a filmmaker. But the audience wants uplifting stories. They haven’t grown with me,” she adds,nearly summing up the plight of parallel cinema across the world.