| Description |
1 online resource (81 min.) |
| Summary |
A powerful film portraying institutionalized racism and police brutality, Otomo provides a convincing look at the everyday world of refugees, who are continuously surrounded by tension and insecurity. In the summer of 1989, a Stuttgart newspaper reported the true story of a West African asylum seeker who physically assaulted an intolerant subway ticket-taker; fled, and became the target of a city-wide manhunt. Otomo is a sober, fictionalized reconstruction of a tale that shocked Stuttgart, and a gripping portrait of how institutionalized racism drives a disempowered individual to violence and inhumanity. West African immigrant Frederic Otomo (Isaach de Bankole) lacks the proper papers to be hired for the most menial of jobs; he has survived for eight years with the help of a Catholic charity. Otomo is the target of verbal abuse, is thrown out of his boarding house, and even scorned by neighborhood dogs. He feels and looks out of place. A stoic bubbling pot of wrath on the run, de Bankole's performance establishes Otomo's essence without words-language cannot express the gravity of his situation. As a ticking soundtrack counts down his fated minutes, Otomo is helped by a kind, aging hippie and her granddaughter, establishing the potential for an inclusive German society |
| Notes |
Title from resource description page (viewed May 25, 2017) |
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In German with English subtitles |
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Won 2000 Bergamo Film Meeting Golden Rosa Camuna for Frieder Schlaich |
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Won 2000 Vancouver International Film Festival Diversity in Spirit Award for Frieder Schlaich |
| Subject |
Otomo, Frederic -- Drama
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Racism -- Germany
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Refugees -- Germany.
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Racism.
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Refugees.
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Germany.
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| Genre/Form |
Biographical films.
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Drama.
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Feature films.
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Feature films.
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Biographical films.
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Films biographiques.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Schlaich, Frieder, director, screenwriter
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Pohl, Klaus, 1952- screenwriter.
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Alberti, Irene von, producer
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Lechner, Thomas, producer
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Tronnier, Claudia, producer
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ArtMattan Productions, publisher.
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Filmgalerie 451, production company.
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Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, production company.
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