Chancellor Scholz proud of German antiwar film's 4 Oscars

BERLIN (AP) – Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed pride Monday that the anti-German film “All Quiet on the Western Front” won four Oscars, including best international film.

“Congratulations on the four Oscars!” Scholz tweeted.

The German Chancellor said, “It is a great success for a German film, one should be proud of it.” “Especially in these difficult times, it clearly shows how horrible and inhumane war is.”

The Netflix film starring Austrian actor Felix Kammerer, directed and co-written by Edward Berger, also won for cinematography, production design and original score on Sunday night.

“With four Oscars, ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ has set an unprecedented record for German film,” said Claudia Roth, Germany’s Minister of State for Culture and Media. “It will bring worldwide attention to German film and give it new importance.”

The film is based on the 1929 classic novel of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque. Set during World War I, it follows the life of a young German soldier who enlists in the army along with his friends. But the realities of war shatter his hopes of becoming a hero and he focuses on his own survival.

The German film shows the horrors of war from the unique perspective of the nation that triggered and lost two world wars.

That young European men are again killing each other in the trenches after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine last year has an eerie timeliness.

Roth said, “It is also the right film at the right time, as it exposes a war in Europe in all its brutality and brutality, currently raging again in the heart of Europe, fueled by Putin’s criminal crackdown on Ukraine.” started with the attack.

The Netflix adaptation was released in October. It won seven awards at last month’s BAFTA Film Awards, including the Best Picture honor at the impressive ceremony. Since its release, it has been one of the most watched non-English films on Netflix in the US, according to the streaming service.

“We tried to make a film about our past, our responsibility in Germany and our history,” Berger said at Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony.

“We were urged to talk about our guilt and our shame that we have brought and the terror that the two wars have unleashed on the world,” he said. ,