Over the past several decades, liberal western Europe's attempts to improve human rights, social equality, and political democracy have increasingly conflicted with countervailing tendencies. The 2000s brought its own range of conflicts, including an upsurge in terrorism, economic downturn, and growing divisions over matters of ethnicity, religion, and history. During the 2010s, a new wave of refugees and immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa further split xenophobic, anti-Muslim nationalists from those who welcomed the non-European "Other". And now, Europe is undergoing the unexpected shock of a virulent pandemic that has already spawned another round of economic devastation and socio-political unrest. Studying contemporary western European film uncovers how the cinema can reflect on and contribute to discourses of conflict and survival in the new century. This edited collection uncovers the ways western Europe's filmmakers have taken it upon themselves to represent and interrogate this new era of uncertainty, and to pose implicitly the broadly political question of "whither Europe?". The chapters demonstrate a broad theoretical and methodological understanding of filmmakers as thinking citizen-artists who are directly involved in their society's discussions of the past, the present, and the future. Far from merely "reflecting" their times, filmmakers have become activists who use their art to reflect on their times and to encourage their audiences to think critically about Europe's problems and potentials.
John Alexander Williams is professor of modern European and German history at Bradley University. He is the author of Turning to Nature in Germany: Hiking, Nudism, and Conservation, 1900-1940 and the editor of Berlin Since the Wall's End: Shaping Society and Memory in the German Metropolis since 1989 and Weimar Culture Revisited: Studies in European Culture and History. Alexandra Hagen is visiting assistant professor at the New College of Florida. Her research interests include twenty-first-century German literature and film as well as second language acquisition. She has edited two volumes of the journal Focus on German Studies. Her work has also appeared in Monatshefte and Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German.
Foreword, Alexandra Hagen and John A. Williams Part I: Historical Memory and National Identity: Representations of the Violent 20th Century Who Gets to Be a National Hero? The Representation of North African Muslims in Days of Glory and Free Men, Priscilla Charrat Nelson Screen Warriors: Danish Soldiers and National Identity in April 9th and A War, Ian Roberts Escaping the Labyrinth of Silence: Cultural Change and the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials in Contemporary German Film, Susanne Lenne Jones Normalizing the Nazi Past in German Comedy? The Complexities of Laughter in Look Who's Back, Marina Durnin Part II: Moving to and from Western Europe: Migrants, Their Enemies, and Their Allies Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Contemporary German Film: Portrayals of a Nation between Tolerance and Xenophobia in We Are Young. We Are Strong and A Very German Welcome, Markus Spitz Transnational Mobility and Migration in The Edge of Heaven, Sarra Kassem Eastern Passage: Emigration from Romania to Western Europe in Code Unknown and Occident, Maria Ionita Part III: Personhood: Everyday Lives and Ethical Values Toni Erdmann: A Thought-Provoking Depiction of European 'Modernization' Processes, Patricia de Almeida Kruger and Marcos Soares The Kindness of Men: Compassion in The Great Beauty and Weekend, John Alexander Williams
