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Irish Times
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Joe O'Byrne: ‘We're having the reactivation of the type of politics that we saw in the early 1930s'
Joe O'Byrne owes two long-dead German twentysomethings a debt of gratitude. But not solely that, he says; he also owes them what he calls 'a debt of exactitude'. His second World War novel The Red Orchestra in Blue – published on the 80th anniversary of VE Day – is a fictionalised account of young couple Harro Schulze-Boysen and Libertas Haas-Heye as they evolve from being the cultured darlings of Berlin society into fearless resistance fighters. Once welcomed in elite Nazi circles (aristocrat Libertas was given away by Hermann Göring at their 1936 wedding), this extraordinary pair became part of the secret anti-Nazi resistance network of artists, intellectuals and allies dubbed The Red Orchestra by the German military-intelligence service. Both Luftwaffe officer Harro and his writer wife Libertas had been involved in the resistance movement before the war, but once war was declared, such activities were reclassified as treason and punishable by death. O'Byrne first came across their story when studying for an MA in German literature. He initially wrote a screenplay about them, but came to believe Harro and Libertas were better suited to the expanse and interiority of a novel. From the outset he wanted to keep faith with their authentic selves, and 'Be true to how they lived, what they said, what they were, what they might have been'. READ MORE The Red Orchestra in Blue, which is also a homage to Berlin (O'Byrne lives in Berlin and Dublin), conjures up two brave, brilliant and charismatic individuals. Set during 1939-1942, it depicts Harro and Libertas as companions, comrades and co-conspirators. Their story is both a very public tale of heroism and tragedy, and the private love story of two complex and ambitious individuals whose legacy has become as deeply interconnected as their lives. [ German president tackles uncomfortable statistic: every second German favours 'drawing a line' under Nazi past Opens in new window ] This is O'Byrne's first novel to be published, although he has written plenty ('probably 12,' he says cheerfully). The novel's original publication date of May 2020 was one of many literary casualties of Covid, and he found its cancellation difficult. 'For a couple years after that, I didn't write any more. I started a number of ideas for books - about four or five - and couldn't finish. And then last year I got one of them to the end of a draft.' The next novel he hopes to publish is Deposition. Set in the Liberties area of Dublin, its dual timeline incorporates the present day and the mid-18th century. The novel he drafted last year, The White Butterfly, takes place in Havana in 1894 and contemporary New York. 'There are writers who like to keep in the same furrow and I don't,' he says. 'I think it's because I work in theatre a lot, where you tend to chop and change.' In addition to writing and directing for film, television and radio, his many theatre credits include Frank Pig Says Hello and The Dead School by Patrick McCabe. He also directed and co-adapted Roddy Doyle's The Woman Who Walked into Doors and The Five Lamps for the stage, and Gary Brown's Dockers. 'Writing a novel is a long process. If you're writing a play you might have a first draft in four weeks. It might take longer, but four weeks is actually possible, whereas with a book you're in it for the long haul. As a writer you have to be patient.' What would he choose if he could work in one art form only? 'At this stage I would probably stick with fiction. Theatre and film are collaborative arts, but because you're engaging with so many people it becomes difficult. Not that the people are difficult, but the process can be. Sometimes you get up in the morning and think, I just want to be on my own and write, I don't want to have to go into a rehearsal room and engage with all these issues and problems and deadlines. The thing about theatre is that once you start, the deadlines come at you so fast ... It's a big ticking clock.' It was a grand historical deed, and it was necessary, and to be commended. However, it led to significant internal resistance — O'Byrne on Angela Merkel's decision to admit more than a million asylum seekers into Germany A third significant character in the novel is Polish-born singer and musician Martin Rosenberg (also known as Rosebery d'Arguto), who was arrested by the Gestapo in 1939 and deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where he secretly set up a choir of Jewish prisoners. Rosenberg's character is introduced with a vivid and insightful description of him as living through three maps: that of Poland when ruled by the tsar of Russia; independent Poland after the first World War; and finally that of 'the expanding Reich when Hitler struck and overran Poland'. It is a striking image, and one with contemporary parallels, as O'Byrne notes, referencing Trump's fixations with Canada and taking control of Greenland. Redrawing maps is just one of the similarities O'Byrne touches on between Europe of 80 years ago and today, citing the similarities between the rise of Nazism and the current growth of right-wing parties and attitudes. He finished writing The Red Orchestra in Blue in 2015, a year he describes as, 'the beginning of what you might call the current phase of the reactivation of past history,' because that was the year when German chancellor Angela Merkel allowed more than a million asylum seekers to cross the border into Germany. 'It was a grand historical deed, and it was necessary, and to be commended. However, it led to significant internal resistance,' he says, as it became a major factor in the growth of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. (The AfD came second in Germany's federal elections in February, winning a record 152 seats in the 630-seat parliament.) 'Trump's attacks on certain institutions are reminiscent of the Nazi attacks on the education system and cultural institutions,' he says. 'When the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain came down, people used the phrase 'at the end of history'. Unfortunately history is not over; history has been reactivated. It just went into abeyance, into slumber mode, and now we're having the reactivation of the type of politics that we saw in the early thirties.' In the novel, Harro says, 'It was all an abuse of confidence, the whole Nazi affair.' As democracy retreats, and culture, science and education are under threat, it's hard not to hear echoes of 1930s Europe all around us today, and O'Byrne's wish for the novel is that it contributes 'to a discussion or argument about the perils of where we're heading at the moment.' The five-year delay in publishing may yet be to O'Byrne's advantage, as interest in second World War literature continues to grow, particularly since the publication of Anthony Doerr's Pulitzer Prize-winning All the Light We Cannot See, which was adapted by Netflix in 2023. Persephone Books recently reissued Sally Carson's Crooked Cross, which in 1934 depicted the rise of Nazi tyranny with horrifying accuracy. O'Byrne also explores the value of culture when it is pitted against what Harro describes as 'the march of steel'. Harro and Libertas were so involved in Berlin's cultural life that they would have witnessed the arts being subverted and crushed. 'Most of the artists we might consider the great artists in Germany in the '20s were considered degenerates and so their art was swept aside,' he says. 'They still did have cabarets, but they were very sanitised. The theatres had a limited, more classical repertoire, and classical music was a key part of the cultural offering. Harro and Libertas would have witnessed that, in fact, culture can only do so much.' From jazz (the 'In Blue' of the novel's title) to cabaret, classical music and the popular hits of the day, music flows like a river through this novel - of all the arts, O'Byrne believes music is the spirit that cannot be crushed. 'Stories like this have to be told and retold,' he says, seeing the role of imagination as to keep hope alive. Ina Lautenschläger, described in the novel as 'fashion model by day, clandestine printer by night', tells Harro, 'At times like these, we must fill our lives with fiction, with fantasy, this is our own little bit of theatre. They cannot take our imagination away from us. That is what makes us human.' Hope is the key, O'Byrne believes. Of Harro and Libertas Schulze-Boysen he says, 'They were brave, they lived in hope. You don't engage in resistance unless you actually have hope.' The Red Orchestra in Blue is published by Betimes Books
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘September 5' Sweeps German Film Awards
September 5 took top honors at the German Film Awards, or Lolas, held in Berlin Friday night. Tim Fehlbaum's real-life thriller, based on the terrorist attacks on the 1972 Munich Olympics, picked up nine Lolas, including for best director, best editing, best cinematography, best sound design, best screenplay, best makeup and best production design. More from The Hollywood Reporter Harry Styles Attended Pope Leo XIV's Historic Conclave Election Looking to Replicate the 'White Lotus' Experience? It Can Be Hit or Myth Films Addressing Oct. 7 Aftermath Win Berlin Jewish Film Festival Leonie Benesch won best supporting actress for her performance as a translator for the U.S. television network broadcasting the attacks live to the world. September 5 premiered at the Venice film festival last year before becoming an awards contender and landing a best original screenplay Oscar nomination for Fehlbaum, Moritz Binder and Alex David. Accepting his best director prize, Fehlbaum praised his German team, and, with a side swipe at Donald Trump and his promised tariffs on 'foreign films,' noted that 'they can raise the tariffs as high as the want, there is not reason to make films anywhere else [than here].' Wolfram Weimer, the new German culture minister, who presented the best film honor, also criticized Trump, calling the tariff proposal 'absurd. The next thing he'll introduce tariffs on jokes, so that people will stop making fun of him.' Liv Lisa Fries won best actress for playing Hilde Coppi, a member of the left-wing anti-Nazi resistance group the Red Orchestra, in Andreas Dresen's historic drama From Hilde, With Love. The film also took the bronze Lola for best film. In a moving speech, Fries referenced the threat of resurgent far-right extremism in Germany. 'It's getting serious,' she said. 'This can't happen again.' Politics was a recurring theme at the awards ceremony in Berlin Friday night, with several winners referencing the dangers represented by the far-right AfD, which is surging in the polls, despite Germany's domestic intelligence service classifying the party as extremist. 'Call them out and show yourselves,' German musician Igor Levit told the crowd in his tribute to Margot Friedländer, a Holocaust survivor who became the conscience of a nation, speaking about her experience in her many television and public appearances, and who died on Friday at the age of 103. Best actor went to Missagh Zareh for his portrayal of an Iranian patriarch in Mohammad Rasoulof's Oscar-nominated The Seed of the Sacred Fig. The film, which depicts an Iranian family torn apart by conflicting loyalties to an increasingly oppressive Tehran regime, was set up as a German-French co-production and shot in secret in Iran. The film also won the runner-up silver Lola for best film. 'Making this film was a miracle, but the miracle was the Iranian women, who made this film possible,' said Rasoulof, accepting his award. The director, who fled Iran last year, now lives in Berlin. He ended his speech with a call to 'stand by us, stand by the people of Iran.' Christian Friedel, star of Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest and part of the ensemble cast of the third season of The White Lotus, hosted the awards, showing off his talents as a song-and-dance man with his band Woods of Birnam. A complete list of the winners of the 2025 German Film Awards follows. – Mohammad Rasoulof, Mani Tilgner, Rozita Hendijanian (WINNER Best Film in Silver) – Claudia Steffen, Christoph Friedel, Regina Ziegler (WINNER Best Film in Bronze)Islands – Maximilian Leo, Jonas KatzensteinKöln 75 – Sol Bondy, Fred Burle – Philipp Trauer, Thomas Wöbke, Tim Fehlbaum (WINNER Best Film in Gold)Vena – Dietmar Güntsche, Martin Rohé Hollywoodgate – Talal Derki, Shane Boris, Odessa Rae, Ibrahim Nash'at – Birgit Schulz, Doris Metz (WINNER)Riefenstahl – Sandra Maischberger, Andres Veiel – Veit Helmer (WINNER)Woodwalkers – Corinna Mehner, Carolin Dassel The Seed of the Sacred Fig – Mohammad RasoulofFrom Hilde, With Love – Andreas Dresen – Tim Fehlbaum (WINNER) The Seed of the Sacred Fig – Mohammad RasoulofFrom Hilde, With Love – Laila Stieler – Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum (WINNER) Liv Lisa Fries – (WINNER)Mala Emde – Köln 75Emma Nova – Vena Sam Riley – CrankoMisagh Zare – (WINNER)Sam Riley – Islands Anne Ratte-Polle – Bad DirectorNiousha Akhshi – The Seed of the Sacred FigLeonie Benesch – (WINNER) Alexander Scheer – From Hilde, With LoveAlexander Scheer – Köln 75Godehard Giese – (WINNER) Cranko – Philipp Sichler – Markus Förderer (WINNER)Vena – Lisa Jilg The Seed of the Sacred Fig – Andrew BirdKöln 75 – Anja Siemens – Hansjörg Weißbrich (WINNER) The Light– Bernhard Joest-Däberitz, Frank Kruse, Matthias Lempert, Markus Stemler, Alexander BuckIslands – Stefan Soltau, Thomas Kalbér, Tobias Fleig – Lars Ginzel, Frank Kruse, Marc Parisotto, Marco Hanelt (WINNER) – Dascha Dauenhauer (WINNER)Kein Tier. So Wild. – Dascha DauenhauerSeptember 5 – Lorenz Dangel Cranko – Astrid PoeschkeHagen – Matthias Müsse, Nancy Vogel – Julian R. Wagner, Melanie Raab (WINNER) – Juliane Maier, Christian Röhrs (WINNER)Hagen – Pierre-Yves GayraudFrom Hilde, With Love – Birgitt Kilian Hagen – Jeanette Latzelsberger, Gregor EcksteinFrom Hilde, With Love – Grit Kosse, Uta Spikermann, Monika Münnich – Sabine Schumann (WINNER) The Light– Robert Pinnow – Jan Stoltz, Franzisca Puppe (WINNER)Woodwalkers – Max Riess, Sven Martin, Bernie Kimbacher – Sven Unterwaldt (Regie), Alexandra Kordes, Meike Kordes (Produktion) (WINNER) An Dorthe Braker Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘The Big Chief' Director Investigates Soviet Spy Ringmaster Leopold Trepper and Antisemitism in Communist-Era Poland
Tomasz Wolski's documentary 'The Big Chief,' which world premiered this week at Visions du Réel, follows the life of Soviet spy ringmaster Leopold Trepper. Variety speaks to Wolski about the film. Trepper, a Polish-Jewish communist, ran a network of Soviet spies across Western Europe, named by the Germans as the Red Orchestra, from the mid-1930s until 1942, when he was captured by the Gestapo and then escaped. When he returned to Moscow after the war he fell out of favor and was imprisoned for 10 years. When he went back to Poland, he led the country's Jewish community for some years, but was persecuted, and denied permission to emigrate to Israel. More from Variety Visions du Réel Crowns 'The Prince of Nanawa' as Grand Prix Winner, 'The Vanishing Point' Claims Burning Lights Award Raoul Peck on His Cannes-Bound George Orwell Documentary and the Threat of Dictatorship: 'Terror Comes Slowly' 'The Golden Swan' Director on Bringing to Screen Her Brother's 'Journey From Hate to Reconciliation' Before Murder by Terrorists In 2016, Wolski was researching another film, 'An Ordinary Country,' in Poland's Institute of National Remembrance, which holds documents and footage from the Nazi occupation through the decades of Soviet domination that followed. 'I was preparing a film about Poland through the eyes of secret service officers,' he says. 'And, at some point, I found documents and film reels that were labelled Leopold Trepper.' He didn't know who Trepper was, but was intrigued and delved into the files and footage. There were more than 20 reels of film in this trove, showing interviews with Trepper conducted by a French crew, led by Jean-Pierre Elkabach, from the 1970s, and confiscated at the airport. After Trepper was denied the right to move to Israel, and was put under round-the-clock surveillance, Elkabach and other supporters in France mounted a campaign to allow him to leave Poland. The head of the French intelligence service said that Trepper had collaborated with the Gestapo during the Nazi occupation of France and betrayed members of the Resistance to save his own skin. Trepper's allies fought this in court and won, resulting in the French spy chief being removed. However, there remains many enigmatic aspects to Trepper's story, and for Wolski that is the point. 'I made this film because I deeply believe you can't be sure of what happened in the past,' he says. 'I mean, we have problems finding out what's going on around us now, so how do you get to the truth about some event that happened 80 years ago?' He adds: 'I don't agree with journalists and historians who try to base their work on documents in the archives.' One of the issues is that the competing intelligence agencies, including the French, Poles and the KGB, were all planting false information as part of their campaigns of disinformation during the Cold War. One of the central issues is whether Trepper genuinely collaborated with the Gestapo after he was captured or, as he claimed later, he was feeding them false information and alerted the Soviets that the Red Orchestra had been compromised. 'I have a lot of doubts [about whether he genuinely betrayed the Allies], and I would even go as far as saying that I don't believe that,' Wolski says. 'But maybe, he just wanted to save his life. I don't know. I mean the thing is that we cannot judge.' He adds: 'I don't want to judge some of the decision made during the war, when their lives were threatened. We don't know how we would behave in that situation. Completely different rules applied at that time, so it's really hard to go there.' One of the issues dealt with in the film was the antisemitism that was prevalent in Poland, especially after the 1968 student protests. 'Antisemitism is still present in Poland. I think we have a huge problem [with that], especially its impact in the past. A few years ago, when we had a different government, they clamped down on historians who were trying to find out the truth [about Polish antisemitism].' He adds: 'For some reason, we cannot accept that it happened. But, when your life is miserable, you have to find someone to blame, and the Jews are often [an easy target].' He says: 'This story is also about the Westerners who really wanted to help someone that was living [under a despotic state] in the East.' Wolski himself had to deal with the divisive nature of politics in Poland. When he first submitted the project to the Polish Film Institute, under the previous conservative government, he was rejected. He had explained he wanted to be even handed but he was told that if he portrayed Trepper as a traitor he might get his funding. But, later, after a change in the expert in charge of the decision-making at the institute, he got his funding. At another funding body in Poland, the decision-maker questioned whether Trepper was actually Polish as he was born in an area that was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire at the time. 'The Big Chief' is produced by Anna Gawlita at Kijora Film. The co-producers are Polish Television TVP S.A., INA, Atoms & Void, KBF, and the Mazovia Institute of Culture. It is co-financed by the Polish Film Institute. 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