Alphabet (2013)

"Alphabet" is the newest Erwin Wagenhofer movie and his third documentary since 2005. He also directed one "acted" film ("Black Brown White"), but I don't remember much of it, so I can't say anything about it. I'll definitely give it another watch though as "Alphabet" made me once again really curious about his work if I get a hand on it. In terms of documentaries, Wagenhofer already gave us his approach on money and the food industry in the past and now he enters the area of education. I believe this is his best work so far. Despite being usually interested in Asia and developments there, I felt that the beginning about the school system in China was the weakest section of the film. The only thing that was really memorable, was the symbolism of parents, children and kites. After that, however it gets steadily better and we see the impact education has on the most different people's lives.

Unfortunately, Germany once again has the saddest case. We see a young man working for a security company, pressed in there by the usually incompetent Federal Employment Office and how he won't be able to fulfill his dreams and ambitions if he doesn't get out of the hamster wheel. Fingers crossed he makes it and becomes a baker one day as he wishes. Other than him, there's a couple Frenchmen included, one very old man who teaches his approach on education to today's youth and a craftsman of musical instruments who has never had any kind of traditional education, but still succeeds thanks to his ambitions and talent. There's a Spaniard living with Down Syndrome which has never really been an obstacle in achieving his goals, who introduces us to the concept of "Fear vs. Love", the elaboration of which is easily one of the best parts of the film. And back to Germany again, there's a little girl who recites a letter on how the impact of the current education system very badly influences her life.

She is also a good example on the theory how almost every child is born as brilliant human being, but the boundaries and schemes we are pressed into as we grow older destroy that kind of genius in almost all of us. And even if we want to, it's unfortunately really difficult to stop that creeping decay. However, the film ends on a positive note with a beautiful parallel between Death Valley and human creativity. I won't elaborate on it any further, but it was pretty much the perfect way to close a film in a truly motivational manner, a film which is packed with interesting information and all kinds of fitting stylistic devices. I can't recommend this movie enough and let me close this review by saying that, even if the theater was unfortunately not exactly packed, there was applause in the end and it has become really uncommon here. This was one of probably no more than 3-4 films that I've seen in 2013 (and I've seen a lot), where people applauded and "Alphabet" really deserved that reaction. Well done to everybody involved!