Never Look Away (film)

''Never Look Away'' (german: Werk ohne Autor, lit=Work Without Author) is a 2018 German epic coming-of-age romantic drama film written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. It was nominated for a Golden Lion at the 75th Venice International Film Festival and for a Golden Globe by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. It was nominated for two Academy Awards at the 91st Academy Awards, in the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography categories. This was only the second time that a German-language film by a German director was nominated for an Oscar in multiple categories, the other film being Wolfgang Petersen's ''Das Boot'' 36 years prior.

Plot

As a child during the Nazi era, Kurt Barnert (inspired by Gerhard Richter) visits an exhibit of "Degenerate Art" in Dresden with his beautiful young aunt Elisabeth. While there, he is mesmerized by ''Girl with Blue Hair'', a modernist sculpture by Eugen Hoffmann. Later at home, Kurt walks in on Elisabeth playing the piano in the nude. She rambles euphorically, saying she is "playing a concert for the Führer" and hits herself on the head with a glass ashtray. She also tells Kurt to "never look away" because "everything that is true holds beauty in it."

Elisabeth is diagnosed with schizophrenia and is sterilized and murdered under the Nazi euthanasia program. The doctor who orders her sterilization and death is gynecologist Professor Carl Seeband, a high-ranking member of the SS medical corps. After the war, he is arrested by the Russians and placed in a prison camp. While there, he volunteers to assist a Red Army officer's wife during a complicated birth and saves the lives of both wife and child. The grateful Russian officer releases Seeband and thereafter helps to keep evidence of his Nazi past from catching up with him.

As an adult, Kurt studies painting at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where he falls in love with a young fashion design student named Elisabeth (like his aunt), whom he calls Ellie. She is the daughter of Professor Seeband, though none of them are aware of their shared history and connection. Kurt excels in his studies, but is forced to complete paintings that reflect socialist realism, an ideology and school of art with which he does not identify. Eventually, he meets Ellie's father, who is now toeing the East German socialist party line. Seeband sees Kurt as genetically inferior to and therefore unsuitable for his daughter and goes to great lengths to sabotage the young couple's relationship, even forcing Ellie to have an abortion due to a made-up health concern when she becomes pregnant with Kurt's child. However, the young couple's love strengthens and eventually the two get married. Fearing prosecution after the Russian officer who had been protecting him is transferred to Moscow, Seeband flees East Germany for West Germany.

Kurt and Ellie flee to West Germany themselves several years later. Since Kurt is already 30 years old, he lies about his age to be admitted to the famous Düsseldorf Art Academy, where he is able to study and practice art more freely than he could in East Germany. His teacher, Professor Antonius van Verten (based on Joseph Beuys) recognizes Kurt's deep personal experience, but also sees that he is struggling to find his own voice, having been trained only in figurative painting, a medium considered outdated and "bourgeois" by the standards of the school. Kurt shares adjoining studio space with fellow student and confidant Harry Preusser (inspired by Günther Uecker blur. Among the sources for the new paintings are Seeband's passport photographs and photographs of Kurt with Aunt Elisabeth from his own family album. When Seeband sees a painting that is a collage of himself, the captured Nazi doctor, and Kurt with Elisabeth, he abruptly leaves the studio. It is unclear if he is simply overwhelmed at being reminded of his past, just realized Elisabeth was Kurt's relative, or believes his son-in-law has uncovered his secret, but Kurt, for his part, still seems to be unaware of the connection.

After years of infertility due to the abortion, Ellie becomes pregnant, and Kurt celebrates the moment she told him by painting her nude. Some time later, he gets his first art show, where his art impresses the critics, even though they completely misunderstand and misinterpret it. He rejoices in finally finding his voice and his place in the world.

Cast

* Tom Schilling as Kurt Barnert
** Cai Cohrs as Kurt Barnert at 6 years old
* Sebastian Koch as Professor Carl Seeband
* Paula Beer as Ellie Seeband
* Saskia Rosendahl as Elisabeth May
* Oliver Masucci as Professor Antonius van Verten
* Hanno Koffler as Günther Preusser
* Evgeniy Sidikhin as NKWD Major Murawjow
* Jörg Schüttauf as Johann Barnert
* Jeanette Hain as Waltraut Barnert
* Hans-Uwe Bauer as Professor Horst Grimma
* Ina Weisse as Martha Seeband
* Lars Eidinger as Exhibition Guide Heiner Kerstens
* Johanna Gastdorf as Grandmother Malvine
* David Schütter as Adrian Schimmel / Finck
* Franz Pätzold as Max Seifert
* Jonas Dassler as Ehrenfried May
* Jacob Matschenz as Arendt Ivo
* Florian Bartholomäi as Günther May
* Ben Becker as Foreman Otto
* Rainer Bock as Dr. Burghart Kroll
* Hinnerk Schönemann

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