Those
clean-cut Aryan teens certainly enjoy fresh mountain air and vigorous outdoor sports.
Yet, somehow, an elite class’s outdoor-bound style retreat took a sinister turn
in Ödön von Horváth’s final anti-totalitarian novel. Nearly a century later,
his parable of hyper-competitive sociopathic students looks like an eerily
prescient forerunner of the already past-its-prime Hunger Gamey wave of YA dystopian novels. The best and the
brightest show their true colors in Alain Gsponer’s contemporary-near-future
adaptation of Godless Youth (trailer here), which screens
during Berlin & Beyond’s 2019 Honolulu series.
Zach
is physically and intellectually at the top of his class. Ordinarily, he would
be a major contender during the Rowald University competition, but he is a tad
bit distracted by the recent suicide of his father. He also has been developing
a social conscious, which will not exactly be an asset for him either.
Initially, the ambitious Nadesh is thrilled to be paired up with the
big-man-on-campus, but she is frustrated by his apathy. Her attempts to bond
through clumsy expressions of sympathy are also counter-productive. The truth
is Zach just isn’t interested in her or the program. Instead, he is fascinated
by Ewa, a rebellious squatter illegally living in the forest.
Alas,
Zach’s tense relationship with Nadesh will take a tragic turn. Their teacher
Herr Lehrer is partly to blame. He rather likes Zach, even though the lad’s
idealism reminds him of what a pathetic sellout he has become. Unfortunately,
his attempts to interfere backfire spectacularly.
So,
Godless really is like a
German-speaking Hunger Games, but
ironically, it has considerably less gladiatorial blood lust. Yet, given
Twentieth Century history, the fact that it is a German film adds an element of
unsettling discomfort. While Horváth’s source novel gives it a literary pedigree,
its aesthetic is really much more YA dystopia (Darkest Minds, Divergent) than Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon.
This
is definitely a case of good-looking twenty-somethings playing teens acting
badly. Yet, Jannis Niewöhner and Alicia von Rittberg deserve credit for
developing a convincingly chilly lack of chemistry as Zach and Nadesh. Fahri
Yardim also guilt-trips something fierce as Lehrer. Plus, Rainer Bock (who also
appeared in White Ribbon) is
interesting to look at as the crusty old Trainer.
