The feature film debut of theatre director Peter Zadek tells the story of an attempt by the older students of a high school to turn the authoritarian structure around and democratise it. At the centre of the story is the pupil Rull, who – much like Zadek himself – passionately rejects the prevailing order. Again and again he thinks up new actions to provoke those around him. In doing so, he pokes fun at teachers, fellow students, police and citizens alike. His personal protest movement finally culminates in smearing a swastika on the wall of the grammar school. When he is threatened with expulsion from school, his fellow students show solidarity.
In the northern city of Bremen, where a new theatre language was being developed at the Staatstheater under the direction of Kurt Hübner (who plays Mr Satemin in the film), the enfant terrible shot what some have called a film pamphlet. Zadek surrounded himself with his stage family, including the leading actor Wolfgang Schneider and the interpreter of the Berlin activist Rolf Becker.
Zadek, who as a stage director was equally provocative with his productions of classics, creates here one of the most intense and multi-layered cinematic confrontations of the 1968 generation. The film’s title, derived from the tango song I Kiss Your Hand Madame, exemplifies Zadek’s subversive attitude toward nostalgia for bourgeois culture. With documentary scenes, hidden cameras and witty dialogues, he confronts – too soon, judging by the moderate box office – the German society as well as its youth, challenging the still very much taboo authoritarian past as well as the ideals of the new generation. Winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlinale.

Lou Burkart