Fatherland (AKA Singing the Blues in Red)
Dir: Ken Loach
1986
*****
Two things make Ken Loach's Fatherland such an engrossing piece; firstly, Gerulf Pannach is the real Klaus Dittemann. Everything that happens in the film pretty much happened to him in his life, although with added torture - something I think Loach did well to avoid. Secondly, this was filmed just four years before the fall of the Berlin wall. Without going into the political history of Germany, what Fatherland does is go forward to explain the feeling of both sides of the country, the emotion rather than the politics which I think tells you far more than any history book could. A fascinating but sadly rarely seen gem.