Berlin Alexanderplatz (2020)

Directed by: Burhan Qurbani | 176 minutes | drama | Actors: Welket Bungué, Albrecht Schuch, Jella Haase, Annabelle Mandeng, Joachim Król, Richard Fouofié Djimeli, Mira Elisa Goeres, Rufina Neumann, Lena Schmidtke, Michael Davies, Nils Verkooijen, Faris Saleh, Benny O.-Arthur, Derek Meisenburg Buabeng, Lukhanyo Bele, Thomas Lawinky

Director Burhan Qurbani dared to look big with his modern adaptation of ‘Berlin Alexanderplatz’, after the book by Alfred Döbling. Because, you just have to do it, a book that resulted in a beautiful 14-part TV series in 1980, directed by legend Rainer Werner Fassbinder, translated into the present day and that in ‘only’ 176 minutes. Qurbani chose to replace the criminal Franz Biberkopf (masterfully played by Günter Lamprecht in the series) with refugee Francis, who makes the dangerous crossing from Africa (Guinea-Bisseau) to Europe.

Francis eventually ends up in Berlin and vows to remain a good person, one who wants to live a decent life. But he also has ambitions, because he wants “more than a sandwich and a bed.”

Qurbani divides his epic into five different parts and an epilogue. After Francis (Welket Bungué) loses his job on a construction site, he comes under the care of drug dealer Reinhold, played superbly by Albrecht Schuch. Francis, renamed Franz by Reinhold, becomes his bodyguard and cook. He introduces him to XTC and they appear on the Berlin nightclub scene. Francis/Franz also gets to know Reinhold’s boss, Poems, a real gangster. Against his will, Francis participates in a robbery at a jeweler. With far-reaching consequences…

After this, Francis wakes up in the bed of nightclub owner Eva. This leaves the battered Francis in the skilled hands of call girl/whore Mieze. Their relationship grows closer, despite Francis’ warning: “Mieze, everything I love I’ll kill.” Francis’s undying loyalty to villain Reinhold is what keeps those around him frowning. But why? After everything he’s done to him? When he goes to tell him about his ‘accident’, Reinhold tells him that he owed this to his lack of loyalty.

At one point Reinhold says what it comes down to in his eyes: “They see you as a stupid negro. I see you as you really are, immortal.” This prompts Francis to rejoin Reinhold’s drug forces. He becomes his bully in the battle for Berlin’s main drug zone. According to the narrator: “Franz wanted to be decent, but life thought otherwise. The hammer against Franz, Franz against the hammer.”

After rising through the ranks, Francis receives a fatherly warning from Poems: “You can’t escape the devil once you let it in.” That is, in fact, the summary of the doom that Francis seems to bring upon himself. He can’t get rid of Reinhold’s millstone that hangs around his neck. Reinhold, in turn, is jealous of the love affair Francis has with Mieze and actively interferes with it as a horrifying apotheosis.

The story of the illegal immigrant, longing for a passport to be ‘real’ German (and decent?), that’s what drives Francis. Throughout the narration, nightmares of his crossing play tricks on him. This is beautifully rendered in dreamlike scenes. In itself there is not much wrong with this modern version of ‘Berlin Alexanderplatz’. It is a journey of two completely different characters, one who wants to do good with all his might and the other who has been corrupted in all its pores for a long time, ruined by the allurements of big city Berlin. What bothers me a bit is that the characters are quite self-contained. The interaction occurs as if by magic. Also the image of the immigrants as modern slaves is perhaps a bit too easy. Anyway, this movie deserves a big audience. It is beautifully shot, has a catchy soundtrack and a convincing cast. The 80s series wins on points, but hey, it spans a whopping 15 hours and 31 minutes. There is, of course, much more nuance and interpretation to be made. In that sense, Qurbani has done well, because the almost three hours fly by. An achievement in itself…