Wen kümmert's : Summary

Volker Schlöndorff about Wen kümmert's:

“Around Frankfurt the Rote Hand was searching for Algerian campaign soldiers who had deserted the French Army and crossed the border into Germany. I wanted to show how in an apparently peaceful Germany, the French colonial conflict continued to exist by being silently tolerated. I enlisted my Moroccan friend Bekkai as an actor, Bertrand Tavernier as an assistant director, and Rim, my old friend from Wiesbaden, as the cinematographer.

My father's sailboat served as location and hiding place for the underground rebels. Renamed Tahia El Djezair – long live Algeria! – it was listed in the closing credits. The film was ‘not approved’ for release on the grounds that France was a political ally whose righteous war in Algeria could not be criticized by the German Federal Republic. I could not have dreamt of a more charming compliment than an officially-proclaimed ban. This otherwise inconsequential film, which I first called Die Wacht am Rhein, then Wen kümmert's and authored under my mother's nickname, ‘Loki’, became important quite unexpectedly as a result of this ban.”