Die alten bösen Lieder (The Bad Old Songs)

The “European Visions” omnibus includes 25 short films from the 25 countries that constituted the European Union in 2004. The project was inspired by Lars von Trier. Filmmakers had five minutes to explore the theme of “Europe.”

The German segment (number 23) is titled “Die alten bösen Lieder” and was directed by Fatih Akin. It was intended to be a filmic interpretation of Heinrich Heine’s 1840 poem of the same name, which had already been set to music by Robert Schumann. “I wanted to depict a very subjective perception of Europe and in my case that is a kind of love-hate-relationship,” Akin has said of the film.

Links: IMDB, Film Portal

Genre(s): Short film

Theme(s): Europe; Poetry; Visions of Europe; EU