Of the six German films I saw at the Berlinale, two deserve a special mention – Herr Wichmann von der CDU (Vote for Henryk!) and Science Fiction. Herr Wichmann is a documentary that follows 25-year-old Henryk Wichmann during the last month of his 2002 Bundestag election campaign in a sparsely populated region of northeast Germany. We see him visiting old people’s homes, participating in debates, and handing out lots and lots of ballpoint pens, postcards, and matchboxes to potential voters. The resulting film is an interesting and very amusing look at a small town campaign, plus I found it a painless way to learn about German politics.

Science Fiction is another interesting and humorous film. The story begins during a seminar on motivation given by cocky presenter Marius (Jan Henrik Stahlberg). One of the participants, Jörg (Arved Birnbaum), cannot understand Marius’ principle of “mental syntax”, and when both men leave the seminar room as part of an exercise, they suddenly find themselves in a parallel universe where no one remembers them. Through being forced to struggle together to find a way back to their normal lives, they find they both have a lot to learn.

Both films follow ordinary people through both ordinary and extraordinary circumstances and show how we all can learn from each other. I recommend them both! (KG)