And Along Come Tourists (2007)

And Along Come Tourists is a 2007 German dramatic film that was written and directed by Robert Thalheim. The principal characters are a young German doing civilian service at the former German Auschwitz concentration camp and an elderly camp survivor living there. Thalheim himself did his civilian service (Zivildienst) at the International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim/Auschwitz in 1996–1997, and portions of the film were shot at the Center and in the nearby town of Oświęcim, Poland. Filming was not permitted at the site of the concentration camp itself, where more than one million persons had been murdered by the end of the Second World War in 1945. Jürgen Fauth and Marcy Dermansky have written of the film that, "Without ever resorting to preachiness, Thalheim, who was a Zivi at Auschwitz himself, offers incisive insights into the thorny contradictions and treacherous cross-currents of guilt and memory that turn any kind of exploration of the overbearing past into a minefield."

The principal performers are Alexander Fehling as Sven Lehnert and Ryszard Ronczewski as the survivor Stanislaw Krzemiński. Barbara Wysocka plays Ania Łanuszewskaa, a young Polish woman from Oświęcim with whom Sven develops a romantic relationship. The film premièred August 16, 2007 in Germany; its North American premiere was September 12, 2007 at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The film received a nomination for "Best Film" at the German Film Awards. Alexander Fehling received the Förderpreis Deutscher Film for his performance as Sven.

A DVD version of the film was released in Europe in 2008, but not in North America.

Synopsis

Sven est un jeune Berlinois qui doit se rendre à Oświęcim (plus connu sous le nom allemand de Auschwitz) pour y effectuer son service civil, dans une auberge de jeunesse attenante à l'ancien camp de concentration. Cet endroit est aujourd'hui un musée sur l'horreur survenue dans l'ancien camp nazi. Le jeune homme a pour tâche d'assister Stanislas Krzeminski, un vieil homme de 80 ans au caractère fort, survivant du camp, dans ses déplacements et la vie de tous les jours.

Actors