Chapter 11
Lost Children: Images of Childhood on the German-Polish Border in Christoph Hochhäusler’s This Very Moment by (2003) and Robert Gliński’s Piggies (2009)
Jakub Kazecki
In Hochhäusler’s This Very Moment, the German-Polish border functions as a divide between the rational and predicable world and the realm of unexpected scenarios. The other side, like a fairytale forest, remains unknown and dangerous, but that is also one of its main magnetic attractions. A similar depiction of the border in another contemporary film, the German-Polish co-production Piggies by Robert Gliński, provokes questions about the impulses that have led the directors to propose such images of the border as the dividing line between two worlds. In both films, the border invites transgression and promises a learning experience—an experience of growing up and growing wiser—but also has the potential to destroy the life of the trespasser.
Hochhäusler’s reading of the border, located within the narrative structure of a fairytale, also defines the choice of the main character for his story: only a child can attempt such a transgression into a strange land. In both films, This Very Moment by Hochhäusler and Piggies by Gliński, through the child protagonist, the geographical space of the borderlands turns into a domain of childhood, dependent on specific cinematic and narrative codes of representation and characterized—from the point of view of the adult audiences—by an amalgamation of the familiar and the ‘Other.’ Through its analysis of the two productions, this chapter explores different representations of childhood on Germany’s eastern peripheries and proposes reading them as metaphors that enforce the politically loaded notion of the border line as a ‘frontier:’ the outer edge of the civilized area subjected to conquest and colonization, and sometimes, as in Piggies, also a domain of physical violence resulting from the clash of two cultures.
Films discussed in Chapter 11:
Distant Lights (Lichter). 2003. Directed by Hans-Christian Schmid. Germany, 2003.
Grill Point (Halbe Treppe). Directed by Andreas Dresen. Germany, 2002.
The Kid. Directed by Charlie Chaplin. USA, 1921.
Piggies (Ich, Tomek/Świnki). Directed by Robert Gliński. Germany, Poland, 2009.
Polska Love Serenade. 2008. Directed by Monika Anna Wojtyllo. Germany, 2008.
Schröder’s Wonderful World (Schröders wunderbare Welt). Directed by Michael Schorr. Germany, 2006.
This Very Moment (Milchwald). Directed by Christoph Hochhäusler. Germany, 2003.
Wedding Polka (Hochzeitspolka). 2010. Directed by Lars Jessen. Germany, 2010.
Hochhäusler’s reading of the border, located within the narrative structure of a fairytale, also defines the choice of the main character for his story: only a child can attempt such a transgression into a strange land. In both films, This Very Moment by Hochhäusler and Piggies by Gliński, through the child protagonist, the geographical space of the borderlands turns into a domain of childhood, dependent on specific cinematic and narrative codes of representation and characterized—from the point of view of the adult audiences—by an amalgamation of the familiar and the ‘Other.’ Through its analysis of the two productions, this chapter explores different representations of childhood on Germany’s eastern peripheries and proposes reading them as metaphors that enforce the politically loaded notion of the border line as a ‘frontier:’ the outer edge of the civilized area subjected to conquest and colonization, and sometimes, as in Piggies, also a domain of physical violence resulting from the clash of two cultures.
Films discussed in Chapter 11:
Distant Lights (Lichter). 2003. Directed by Hans-Christian Schmid. Germany, 2003.
Grill Point (Halbe Treppe). Directed by Andreas Dresen. Germany, 2002.
The Kid. Directed by Charlie Chaplin. USA, 1921.
Piggies (Ich, Tomek/Świnki). Directed by Robert Gliński. Germany, Poland, 2009.
Polska Love Serenade. 2008. Directed by Monika Anna Wojtyllo. Germany, 2008.
Schröder’s Wonderful World (Schröders wunderbare Welt). Directed by Michael Schorr. Germany, 2006.
This Very Moment (Milchwald). Directed by Christoph Hochhäusler. Germany, 2003.
Wedding Polka (Hochzeitspolka). 2010. Directed by Lars Jessen. Germany, 2010.
Trailer of the film Piggies (Source: YouTube)
About the author:
Jakub Kazecki (Bates College) teaches German language, literature and film. He is the author of Laughter in the Trenches: Humour and Front Experience in German First World War Narratives (2012). His articles on the 20-century German literature and images of Polish-German relationships in literature, film and visual arts appeared in journals and edited volumes in the fields of German and Slavic Studies. His recent publications include the essay on images of the German-Polish borderlands in German cinema in the volume Cinema and Social Change in Germany and Austria (2012), and the article on the functions of humor and laughter in the German literature of the First World War in the collection Expressions of the Unspeakable: Narratives of Trauma (2013). Kazecki is currently working on a book on images of the East in the contemporary German cinema.
Jakub Kazecki's webpage
Jakub Kazecki (Bates College) teaches German language, literature and film. He is the author of Laughter in the Trenches: Humour and Front Experience in German First World War Narratives (2012). His articles on the 20-century German literature and images of Polish-German relationships in literature, film and visual arts appeared in journals and edited volumes in the fields of German and Slavic Studies. His recent publications include the essay on images of the German-Polish borderlands in German cinema in the volume Cinema and Social Change in Germany and Austria (2012), and the article on the functions of humor and laughter in the German literature of the First World War in the collection Expressions of the Unspeakable: Narratives of Trauma (2013). Kazecki is currently working on a book on images of the East in the contemporary German cinema.
Jakub Kazecki's webpage