Mendel
Myself, I have no bad memories of Germany,” says nine-year-old Mendel in the opening scene of the film that carries his name - but that is all his parents have, besides concentration camp syndrome and his father's tuberculosis. The year is 1954, and the little boy is on his father's lap in the back seat of the lone Volkswagen beetle that whirls up dust in a Bavarian landscape. Like other displaced Jews after the war, Aron and Bela Trotzig and their two sons live in Germany, trying to find a country willing to receive them. Then Norway accepts a small contingency of sick refugees.
Screening in today's Panorama, Norwegian director Alexander Røsler's feature directorial debut, Mendel, follows the Jewish-German family in search of peace in 50s' Norway. Norwegian producer Axel Helgeland, of Northern Lights, has struck the first print for the Berlinale, before the 21 March domestic release through Norsk Film-Distribusjon. Sales director Lena Enquist handles international distribution of the NOK19 (US$ 2.9) million production, with participation from Norway's Norsk Film A/S and pubcaster NRK, Denmark's Zentropa Entertainments and Germany's Lichtblick.
Born in Dachau in 1947, Røsler came to Norway as a refugee in the 1950s and spent his childhood in Stavanger. A social anthropologist, he started making short films and documentaries in 1974, followed by docu-dramas and novella films for children. His 45-minute feature, Summerjubel (Summer at last), was Most Popular Film in Chicago 1986. Between 1987-1989 he was head of the short film department at the Norwegian Film Institute, returning to work mainly for pubcaster NRK. In 1991 his Svett glamour (Sweat…Glamour) was awarded an Amanda - Norway's Oscar - as Best Documentary.'
There are similarities to my own life in Mendel, but it isn't autobiographical… Sometimes though, the characters get to me in a manner I had not anticipated,” says Røsler. 'The film is about the Trotzigs' encounter with Norwegian society, and their efforts to find peace in themselves after the cruelty they have been exposed to. They find it difficult to discuss their experiences under the Nazi regime, and they want to protect their children from learning them. But children are curious, and they know how to listen.
”With some modifications, their drama and reactions poignantly apply to present-day groups of exiles and refugees with similar experiences of concentration camps or torture, be it Chileans or Bosnians: the shame of having tolerated extreme personal debasement, and the guilt of ultimately having co-operated with the torturist in order to survive another hour, another day. The children - all ears and sensibilities - are left to their own fantasies, becoming victims of their anxieties about what happened to their parents, and what may happen to them. Psychiatrists have labelled it the Second Generation Syndrome.”
Scene 97, take two, in Norsk Film A/S' studios at Jar outside Oslo. Inside an old clock, Mendel, played by Thomas Jüngling Sørensen, has just found The Yellow Star, a book about Jews in the KZ Lagers, illustrated by, among others, the famous photo of a little boy leaving the Warsaw ghetto with his arms in the air. A last-minute discovery for the part, Sørensen has spent his summer holiday from school portraying the refugee.'
Grown-ups often forget their children are around when they talk,” says Røsler. ”Mendel comprehends more and more of his parents' suffering, and having learned about the Norwegian resistance during the Nazi occupation, he is not pleased with his father's performance in Germany. He does not ask 'What did you do during the war, dad?', but 'Why didn't you do anything during the war, dad?' But it isn't a period piece. Recent events in the world have shown that not a lot has changed since then in terms of basic attitudes. There are plenty of uncomfortable parallels to be drawn.”
He has not forgotten about Jewish humour, though. 'You know the story of Moishe, who is going for a walk, when suddenly he falls down a precipice? At the last moment he manages to grab hold of a branch, screaming, 'God in Heaven, help me!' And this deep voice comes down to him, 'Moishe, this is God. I'll help you. Just let go, and I'll bring you safely down.' Moishe doesn't dare, and again God tells him to trust him and let go. That's when Moishe looks up to Heaven and shouts, 'Hallo!'”
”I'd love to be an actor, although I'd prefer sometimes to be a jet pilot or an undercover agent,” admita Sørensen, a fourth-former, who has never been in a film before, and whose main hobby is gymnastics. 'The part is not that difficult - Mendel is very much like me: polite, quiet, very considerate, and also curious. But I look in the drawers for chocolate rather than books and photographs.” He claims his schoolmates find his new job as exciting as he does, but wouldn't comment on female admirers.
German actor Hans Kremer (in Berlin for Reinhard Hauff's Golden Bear-winner, Stammheim in 1986, and Margaretha von Trotta's Das Versprechen/The Promise in 1995) is Mendel's father, and German actress Teresa Harder is on her first cinema assignment as his mother. 'The Trotzig family simply wants to find a home in peace, but it carries history on its shoulders,” says Harder. 'Mendel demands to know what his parents try to hide from him, because they think they must protect him. But what is most fascinating in the story is that it is not about the past, but about here and now.”
Mendel is the 12th production of Helgeland, a business school graduate who entered the film industry in 1970. He started with Norsk Film A/S, to take over as managing director in 1984. Between 1989-1990 he was head of the Norwegian Short Film Festival, and he has been chairman of the Association of Norwegian Film Producers 1984-1988, the Norwegian Centre of Screen Studies 1989-1995, and Filmkontakt Nord 1990-1995. He started Northern Lights in 1991 with Erik Borge, also a former chief executive of the state- and municipally-owned Norsk Film A/S.
Written by Borge, the debut of Northern Lights, Kvitebørn kong Valemon (The Polar Bear King), took off to a flying start with sales to more than 40 countries, including the US, where it reached 500,000 units in the video market. The international success in the children's adventure genre has prompted a series of projects, which are now under development. A more local example, Markus og Diana (Markus and Diana), directed by Svein Scharffenberg from an original screenplay by Klaus Hagerup, is showing in the European Film Market.
Other theatrical bestsellers comprise Liv Ullmann's Kristin Lavransdatter (Kristin Lavransdatter - The Garland), which Helgeland with associate Lindström developed through Lavransdatter AB to co-produce with Norsk Film A/S. The film has reached more than 650,000 admissions locally in a country of slightly more than 4.2 million inhabitants, and a sequel is in preparation, to be directed by Eva Isaksen. The company also catered for the theatrical version of Norwegian pubcaster NRK-TV's Gåten Knut Hamsun (Enigma), a portrayal of the Nobel Laureate based on British author Robert Ferguson's book, directed by Bentein Baardson.
From the first couple of purely Norwegian productions, Northern Lights has increasingly joined other Scandinavian companies in feature film producing, among others Swedish MovieMakers production of Lapp director Paul-Anders Simma's Sagojogan ministeri (The Minister of State), which is screening in the market, Denmark's Zentropa Entertainments (Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves), and Per Holst Film (Nils Malmros' Barbara). On the other hand, Helgeland has found Danish finance for Henning Carlsen's Pan (Two Green Feathers), Mendel and Trygve Allister Diesen's upcoming Mørkets øy (Isle of Darkness).
Prod co: Northern Lights, with Norsk Film A/S and NRK Drama (Norway), Zentropa Entertainments (Denmark) and Lichtblick Filmproduktion (Germany), supported by Norway's Audiovisual Fund, the Danish Film Institute and Eurimages
Prod: Axel Helgeland
Dir/Scr: Alexander Røsler
PH: Helge Semb
Mus: Geir Bøhren, Bent Åserud Set
des: Jack van Domburg
Cast: Thomas Jüngling Sørensen, Hans Kremer, Teresa Harder, Hans Kremer, Charlotte Trier, Wolfgang Pintzka Domestic
release: Norsk FilmDistribusjon (21 March 1997)
International sales: Sales director Lena Enquist, c/o Scandinavian Office
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