Werk ohne Autor (2018)

German artist Kurt Barnert has escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany, but is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR-regime.

Director:

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Writer:

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Stars:

Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Schilling	...	Kurt Barnert
Sebastian Koch	...	Professor Carl Seeband
Paula Beer	...	Ellie Seeband
Saskia Rosendahl	...	Elisabeth May
Oliver Masucci	...	Professor Antonius van Verten
Cai Cohrs	...	Kurt Barnert 6 Jahre
Ina Weisse	...	Martha Seeband
Evgeniy Sidikhin	...	NKWD Major Murawjow
Mark Zak	...	Dolmetscher Murawjow
Ulrike C. Tscharre	...	Frau Hellthaler
Bastian Trost	...	Hausarzt Dr. Franz Michaelis
Hans-Uwe Bauer	...	Professor Horst Grimma
Hanno Koffler	...	Günther Preusser
David Schütter	...	Adrian Schimmel / Finck
Franz Pätzold	...	Max Seifert

Storyline

Young artist Kurt Barnert (Tom Schilling) has fled to West-Germany, but he continues to be tormented by the experiences he made in his childhood and youth in the Nazi years and during the GDR-regime. When he meets the student Ellie (Paula Beer), he is convinced that he has met the love of his life and begins to create paintings that mirror not only his own fate, but also the traumas of an entire generation.

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Plot Keywords:

male frontal nudity | male rear nudity | male nudity | female nudity | 

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Genres:

Drama | History | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for graphic nudity, sexuality and brief violent images

Details

Country:

Germany Italy

Language:

German Russian

Release Date:

3 October 2018 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Work Without Author

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Box Office

Gross USA:

$124,301, 14 February 2019

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pergamon Film, Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion, Beta Cinema

Technical Specs

Runtime:

188 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Official submission of Germany for the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category of the 91th Academy Awards in 2019.

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Goofs

The signage on the pillar on the left to the stair in the Düsseldorf women's hospital says "Chirugie" where it correctly should be "Chirurgie".

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Connections

Featured in 76th Golden Globe Awards (2019)

User Reviews

A Bit Too Much

"Never Look Away" is a seriously good movie. It tells the life of Kurt, a German artist born just before the Nazis took power, who survives the war and studies in East Germany under the Communists, eventually ending up in West Germany and trying to find his own style. The story is engrossing, the acting is good, there are some beautiful nude scenes, excellent camera work, interesting characters, and the insight that all totalitarian societies treat their artists as means to an end. What stops it getting a rating of 10/10 is that everything is just a bit too much. Kurt's beloved aunt Elizabeth, an early victim of the Nazis, is heartbreakingly, almost inhumanly, beautiful. Perhaps she is seen that way by her 8-year-old nephew; but he already shows the precocious artistic talent to see things as they really are. There is a Bad Guy in the film, and he is unremittingly, almost inhumanly, bad. This is not just an artistic failing. By having the Bad Guy so evil, it tends to distract the viewer from the fact that the Holocaust was conducted by ordinary people, not super-villains. The film is long, at 3 hours and 8 minutes. It doesn't feel like that, and I didn't find myself looking at my watch. But it could have lost, say, half an hour, and would have been better for it. And the music is a bit overdone, a bit too emphatic. "Never Look Away" is a very good film that could have been better.