Palermo oder Wolfsburg (1980) by Werner Schroeter
Sunday, December 11, 1988, 7:30 pm
Palermo Oder Wolfsburg by Werner Schroeter
The plot to Palermo oder Wolfsburg (1980) is deceptively simple: a Sicilian migrant worker is tried by German courts for killing two rowdy louts in a fight outside a cafe. In Schroeter’s hands this sordid tale achieves high drama through his emotionally charged operatic style, intertwining realism and dreams amidst a cacophony of German, Italian, Sicilian dialect, music and sound. Not merely melodrama, Schroeter has actually made a film about the clash of two different cultures, one rural and semi-feudal and the other urban and industrial — and by implication his own clash as a homosexual and artist with Germany’s post-war society.