By Bill Blake
For his film project Germany in a Day, director Sönke Wortmann asked ordinary Germans from all walks of life to submit videos documenting their lives on a single day: June 20, 2015.
He received nearly 10,000 videos. Some were just a few seconds long. Others ranged up to 24 hours. All of the filmmakers were tasked with answering three questions: What makes you happy? What makes you scared? And what does Germany mean to you?
Some of the clips are vlogs made on an iPhone. Other are professionally made. Some are recorded by kids, some by teenagers, others by adults and the elderly.
From this material, Wortmann created a single film lasting 103 minutes, featuring hundreds, if not thousands, of edits.
Wortmann’s project starts with videos made in the early hours of the morning and takes us through a 24-hour period. We see people waking up, eating breakfast and discussing what they are going to do. The film includes montage sequences: people showering in the morning, stuck in the rain, eating food and playing music.
Some people are glimpsed only for a second. Others are returned to several times, including an elderly couple approaching their 54th wedding anniversary, a woman singing songs about the need for a minimum living wage, and a man having a very bad day with his car.
We are introduced to an elderly woman with dementia who has forgotten everything but how to play the piano. One young girl shows off her pet mice – one of whom is called Farty.
Not everyone is likable. Some are struggling with debt or mental illness. But Wortmann’s tapestry of ordinary people’s lives makes for an optimistic portrait of life in modern Germany.
Germany in a Day is screening nationally at the German Film Festival.
