Der Ganz Grosse Traum

I feel like I haven't written anything in a while.. oops ! But anyway, last night I watched Der Ganz Grosse Traum (Lessons of a Dream) by Sebastian Grobler.

The film is based on a real story, and is set in the late 19th century (1874), in a town called Braunschweig, in the then Prussian empire. A native german, english teacher Konrad Koch, played by Daniel Bruehl (from the Edukators) comes to the local school following a degree at Oxford as a 'pioneer', as the Headmaster Gustav Merfeld played by Burghart Klaussner (yep he's also in The Edukators) says, as English hadn't been taught there previously and everything that the boys know about England is common prejudices handed down from one generation to the next. The kids don't seem very interested in learning English, until he introduces them and in turn, the rest of Germany, to football, a sport played by the 'barbaric' English, and is later described as being 'undeutsch'. 

Unfortunately, Koch’s unconventional ways soon make him many enemies: influential parents, local dignitaries and, above all, his colleagues, who only believe in Prussian drills and discipline. Mr Koch receives a letter from a friend from England, who is also a teacher. He happens to be taking his students on a trip to Germany and the english students want to play football against the german boys, but of course, much of the town is against this and Koch has to prove them wrong, and make his dream a reality....

Daniel Bruehl is of course brilliant as always, and his english complete with accent is actually very good ! The conflicts between the teacher and his students, his colleagues, and between parents and children, Grobler captures well. All the resistance to modern educational methods remind me very much of another world-renowned school movie, Dead Poets Society.  I really liked the soundtrack and beautiful location ! But to be honest, I didn't find the film amazing..Das Wunder von Bern was much more impressive and emotional as a football related film !

I would say however, that it could be seen to be a bit cheesy.. a teacher taming a wild class.. but it tells the origins of football in Germany which is naturally quite important ! Fascinatingly,  the 'barbaric' sport was banned in Bayern until 1927... who'd have thought?! 

Also, the dvd I have doesn't have English subtitles which was a bit annoying as my German isn't really that good, so I couldn't understand absolutely everything... Ah well.