Love battles torture

Director of Nanjing Massacre-themed film now in China with a feature on a troubled Chilean settlement, Xu Fan reports.

German director Florian Gallenberger was angry when he heard about Colonia Dignidad, a notorious settlement in Chile. It was 1981 and he was 9 years old.

"Seven years ago, I found that the compound was still there and it's a much bigger story than I'd ever have known," Gallenberger tells China Daily in Beijing.

Chinese moviegoers know the director for his Nanjing Massacre-themed film John Rabe (2009).

His new film, Colonia, is based on activities of a cult in the Chilean settlement. It was screened as the opening film at the 4th Festival of German Cinema, which is touring Beijing, Chengdu and Shenzhen.

The annual festival is held by German Films, an organization promoting the country's cinematic culture worldwide, and Goethe-Institut China.

Gallenberger, 44, who is the China-based festival's honorary patron, is promoting his film with events in the three cities.

While similar to John Rabe in the way that it revolves around a German during a turbulent time, Colonia shows things from the perspective of two lovers - a flight attendant, played by British actress Emma Watson, and a German supporter of Chile's deposed president Salvador Allende, played by German actor Daniel Bruhl.

In the fictionalized story based on real incidents, the attendant risks her life to rescue her lover, who is jailed in Colonia Dignidad after military dictator Augusto Pinochet launches a coup in 1973.

Founded by the German missionary Paul Schafer in 1961, Colonia Dignidad was an isolated location in southern Chile.

Schafer was also charged with sexually abusing children.

To obtain firsthand information, Gallenberger visited Colonia Dignidad many times between 2009 and 2013.

He says the locals, including political prisoners, former cult followers and relatives of murder victims, slowly opened their hearts to him and talked about things that still haunt them.

"The film is trying to make people, especially the youth, not forget about what happened in the past," the director says.

"The four years (of research)were like being a detective. I had to put the pieces together to get the true story. It was very exciting but also very sad. But it's the only way to go deep enough to find out what really happened."

The 110-minute feature, which opened in Germany in February, has received mixed reviews so far. While some hailed it as a thought-provoking film, others called it a superficial attempt "using a shallow romance" to unveil one of the darkest chapters in Chilean history.

But Gallenberger seems prepared for questions.

"There are a million different ways to tell the story. But what's important for me is that it is told in a way that hopefully reaches a big audience," he says. "I wanted to make a film for people who've never heard about Colonia Dignidad, and who normally wouldn't care about what happened in Chile in 1973."

He believes a mix of a thriller and romance is an effective way to realize such a goal.

To date, the global box office has given the film $2.5 million. In China, despite its limited release in theaters, 1.87 million watched Colonia on streaming site iQiyi.

Gallenberger says the film has made a splash in Germany and Chile, focusing public attention on a relatively ignored chapter in history.

"German filmmakers are doctors who operate precisely on the wound of history until darkness and truth are starkly exposed before us," he says.

Born in Munich, Gallenberger began his film career as a child actor. But his interest transferred to directing and he proved his talent behind the camera.

In 2001, Gallenberger's short drama Quiero ser (I Want to Be)won an Oscar for best short subject.

He has directed only three features - Shadows of Time (2004), John Rabe and Colonia (2015) - but he has received wide acclaim.

For Gallenberger, China is not a strange place as he spent two years in the country shooting John Rabe, a biopic of a German businessman who sheltered more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing Massacre.

The nonstop slaughter from December 1937 to January 1938 saw more than 300,000 Chinese killed by Japanese troops in then-capital of Republic of China (1912-49).

"I know that for Japanese culture it's very difficult to face guilt and shame," says Gallenberger while speaking about John Rabe's ban in Japan.

But he is glad that the film,with a three-hour television version released in Germany, made more Germans aware of history.

"Millions of people have watched the film. I think it has brought about some changes in them," he says.

Contact the writer at xufan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 11/24/2016 page8)