Farewell, Joseph

Film director Andreas Kleinert belongs to the last generation of filmmakers that emerged in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). Born in 1962, Kleinert's attitudes were shaped by the late 1970s, and particularly by the 1980s—a period of increasing disillusionment. He wrote his thesis on “Levels of Consciousness in the Film Poetry of Andrei Tarkovsky,” the late Soviet film director who made a name for himself in the pre-perestroika years with bleak films. As Kleinert completed his film academy studies with his graduation film, Leb' wohl, Joseph ( Farewell, Joseph, 1989), the Berlin Wall fell, heralding the collapse of the GDR. Kleinert won the main prize for his diploma feature film, Leb' wohl, Joseph, at the Munich International Festival for Film Schools. The next year, this remarkable black-and-white Kafkaesque film of cryptic symbols and enigmatic metaphors was invited to compete at Locarno.