“Never Look Away” — As Irresistibly Schizophrenic as its Subject(s)

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck lands on the red carpet again, with an almost unbelievable, but true tale of trauma and rebirth.

I first encountered Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck when watching his 2007 Oscar-winning Best Foreign Language Picture “The Lives of Others”, the depressingly realistic (in tone and detail, according to survivors of the GDR, socialist East Germany) tale of the STASI’s pervasive surveillance of any and all of its citizens who could be considered a threat to the East German state (even if their only crime was not singing loudly enough at a birthday party).

He followed it in 2010 with the worse than mundane, but very forgettable “The Tourist”, then seemed to drop off the map — until 2018. He’s finally redeemed himself with cinephiles because, even though it didn’t win, his latest film, “Never Look Away” touched a previously ignored German national nerve and landed him another Best Foreign Language Picture Oscar nomination.

The film stars Tom Schilling as Kurt Barnert, Sebastian Koch as Professor Carl Seeband, Paula Beer as Ellie Seeband, Ina Weisse as Martha Seeband, Saskia Rosendahl as Elisabeth May, Jörg Schüttauf as Johann Barnert and Oliver Masucci as Professor…