Totalitarian
regimes cannot afford to let children grow up to be free-thinkers, so they try
to beat them into obedience while they are still children. That means schools
are more often a place of indoctrination than education. Young Fritzi becomes
the focus of her teacher’s wrath through no fault of her own. However, history
is on her side in Matthias Bruhn & Ralf Kukula’s animated feature, Fritzi: A Revolutionary Tale, which
screens during the 2020 New York International Film Festival.
Fritzi
and her best friend Sophie are so close, they are almost like sisters. That is
nearly as true for their mothers, so Fritzi and her family agree without
hesitation to look after Sophie’s dog Sputnik while she and her mom vacation in
Hungary. They had heard reports that the Hungarian border was becoming rather
porous during the summer of 1989, but they never gave it much thought until
Sophie fails to return for the start of class.
Their
venomous teacher, Ms. Liesegang openly condemns Sophie for abandoning the
socialist state in class, but Fritzi naively defends her friend. That
immediately puts her on the outs with Liesegang and the school’s Young Pioneer
enforcers. Soon, only Bela, the hipster son of democracy activist parents will
talk to her. Fritzi still does not fully understand the hypocrisy and
oppression of the East German system, but she will learn the hard way when she
innocently attempts to find her way to the Federal Republic, to reunite Sophie
and Sputnik.
This
is 1989, so there is a happy ending waiting for Fritzi, but getting there will
not be easy. Along the way, she gets swept up in the Monday Demonstrations at
St. Nicholas, first as an inadvertent bystander, but eventually as an active
participant. Of course, we know where it is all headed, but Beate Volcker’s
adaptation of Hannah Schott & Peter Palatsik children’s novel vividly
captures the hope, fear, and uncertainty of the era. They also manage to
shoehorn a girl-and-her-dog story into the grand historical events of 1989
quite nicely.
Bruhn
& Kukula’s animation is not particularly sophisticated, but Sputnik is
sufficiently cute and Fritzi and her classmates all look and speak like young
teens. More importantly, they manage to agilely walk a fine line, maintaining a
tone appropriate for young viewers, while concretely establishing the very real
danger Fritzi and her family face.
Fritzi is a smart and
sensitive animated film that is grounded in real history. It is exactly the
kind of film young people should see, because they will relate to it as pure
entertainment, while it tells some important lessons. Highly recommended for
viewers of all ages, (especially seventysomethings running for president), Fritzi: A Revolutionary Tale screens
this Saturday (2/29), the next Saturday (3/7), and the following Saturday
(3/14), as part of this year’s NYICFF.
