Olivier Morel, Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and Film, Television & Theatre, will soon release a new documentary, entitled GERMANY: as told by writers Christoph Hein, Wladimir Kaminer Emine Sevgi Özdamar and Bernhard Schlink.
Marked by very different backgrounds (East Germany, Russia, Turkey, and West Germany, respectively), these influential writers are key figures whose works bear witness to a new way of depicting Germany’s trauma in modern literature and culture. Their work is also part of the move in contemporary German literature towards transnationalism, reflecting Germany’s transition toward an increasingly multicultural, multiethnic, and multilingual society. Its contemporary literature increasingly looks beyond the geographic limits of the German state.
The film’s world premiere took place on February 21, 2014 in New York City, which was attended by Professor Morel, along with featured writer Bernhard Schlink and two of the protagonist-writers of the film.
The film is set to premiere on television on the European channel ARTE next fall.
Morel’s films include the award-winning documentary On the Bridge (2011), The Twentieth Century, three survivors (1999), The Last from World War I (2000), and Farewell 14 (2006). He is also the author of Visages de la Grande Guerre (1998), Berlin Légendes (2014), as well as a graphic novel, Revenants (with drawings by Maël, 2013).