Sources Of Life

Often considered the “bad boy” of German cinema Oskar Roehler revisits his roots in this vast fresco of post-war Germany and the 1980s economic miracle, which seemed to involve everything from garden gnomes and punk rock to intellectual revolt.

It opens in 1949 with a veteran soldier Erich Freytag (Jürgen Vogel) returning from the Russian front to his homeland, which has become a newly created Federal Republic. Dishevelled, in rags and suffering from dysentery he receives a lukewarm reception from his family.

His son Klaus (Moritz Bleibtreu), who has discovered he has a talent for writing, takes pity on him and gives him support. He starts his own family with the well-off Gisela (Lavinia Wilson) but their son is neglected and shunted back and forwards to the homes of his grandparents.

Neither mother nor father show the boy much affection, which as he grows up leaves him curious to find out more about his own background and who he really is. He finds true love and emerges as the only positive person in an array of self-obsessed narcissists and former Nazis.

Roehler casts a distinctly critical and jaundiced eye over his compatriots across three generations but he leaves room for compassion and even a touch of sentimentality.

Although the director displays a commanding ability to marshal his forces, the lengthy narrative has a tendency to stop and start in mid tracks rather than flowing seamlessly. It’s a bumpy journey but with compensations en route.