Slightly disturbed in Hamburg

As opposed to sleeples in Seattle...that's me this evening. Thursday evenings are movie nights since I get to watch cheap (€2) movies in German at the University, all in an attempt to improve my very rusty German. This evening it would appear I read the programme wrongly and instead of watching a movie that made a clean sweep at the German Oscars, I got to watch Deutschland: Ein Sommermaerchen (a summer fairytale), all about the German team and its attempt to win the World Cup this year.

Firstly the auditorium was packed. A lot more people came to watch this movie than those who watched Capote with me last week. Maybe it was the music that was supposed to invoke national pride and bring emotions to a crescendo. As can be imagine the music was at its most annoying when the Germans scored a goal. Maybe it was the nudity, which didn't serve any purpose other than to illustrate in what great shape the national team is. Now of course some of the footage was shot in the locker rooms, so a little bit of nudity was expected. I'm no prude and admire good male anatomy when it's presented to me, but I thought they took it a little too far when they showed Michael Ballack (German captain, whose arrogance was displayed proudly throughout the movie) being massaged, outside the locker room, with just a small towel protecting his privacy. Maybe it was regular intervals of nudity - honestly I'm not very interested in seeing what Jens Lehmann (goalkeeper) looks like without his kit when he's drying himself (a very private moment that he might share with his teammates, but he doesn't have to share the rest ofGermany). Also within the first couple of seconds of the movie we are presented with a pair of lily-white buttocks and that kinda set the tone for the whole thing. One almost got the feeling that these poor players are national property to such a degree that their right to not parade naked in front of a big audience was completely disregarded.

Early on in the movie I started recalling images of grainy Nazi propaganda films, which showed naked blondes on horses taking part in parades to the the sound of emotion-stirring music. And I wondered wasn't this movie just a continuation of that? The tone of coach Jurgen Klinsmann pep-talk before each game was similar to that employed by Hitler, when he was spewing out his emotion-stirring rhetoric. What lurks in the collective German psyche that makes invasion of privacy/sharing intimacy in such a public way OK, when they are otherwise so intent on protecting people's privacy? What got me was how everyone on-screen and in the audience was OK with this, when according to me (the outsider) it was so not OK. The nauseating mixture of overwhelming national pride, emotion-stirring music and gratuitous nudity got so much for that I couldn't wait for the semi-final match, where the Italians trounced the Germans with two beautiful goals.

How, do you ask yourself, did I manage to sit through the whole ordeal? Answer: Lukas Podolski. Despite big names like Ballack, Lehmann (Klinsmann, Bierhof, Kahn) this was the star of the show for me, not only because he scored some beautiful goals, but also he's the complete opposite of the big-headed and stubborn Ballack. That and the fact that he looks absolutely adorable sprawled across a bed in just white briefs (grrrr). He was also given a camera (Poldicam) with which he filmed his teammates giving an even more intimate look into the life of the national team. He's so young (and inexperienced he can't even speak English) and the World Cup thrust him onto the world stage. I'm keeping my eye on this player b/c I think he's destined for great things - watch out Ronaldhino, you got some serious competition.

I feel bad comparing this movie with Nazi propaganda. I like Germans and don't think as a group they are inherently bad - far from it. This movie shows me that despite how developed a nation is there will always lurk some unexplained, irrational elements in the national psyche. It's also amazing how these elements permeate through the ages and across generations.