Palermo or Wolfsburg movie storyline. A poor Italian bricklayer (nonprofessional actor Nicola Zarbo) travels to Germany in search of work, only to land in more humiliating poverty and wind up on trial for manslaughter. Director Werner Schroeter divides his story into three acts, adopting a different style for each: the first, set in Italy, mimics postwar Italian neorealism (in particular the early films of Rossellini and Visconti).
The second, concerning the hero’s arrival in Germany, transpires in lengthy, deliberately composed shots reminiscent of Schroeter’s contemporary Rainer Werner Fassbinder; the third, depicting his trial, feels like an avant-garde opera, with players in heavy make-up affecting exaggerated gestures and speechifying for the camera as though performing arias.
Palermo or Wolfsburg (German: Palermo oder Wolfsburg) is a 1980 West German film by Werner Schroeter. It tells the story of an Italian immigrant who comes to West Germany in search of work. An impoverished young man from Sicily travels to Wolfsburg, West Germany to find work. He takes a job in the Volkswagen factory after he travels through Northern Italy by train.
Released in 1980, the film was a critical success in Europe and won the Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival; today it feels unduly schematic, though the wealth of ideas is still impressive. In Italian and German with subtitles.
Palermo or Wolfsburg (1980)
Directed by: Werner Schroeter
Starring: Nicola Zarbo, Otto Sander, Ida Di Benedetto, Johannes Wacker, Antonio Orlando, Brigitte Tig, Gisela Hahn, Calogero Arancio, Cavaliere Comparato, Padre Pace, Ula Stöckl, Tamara Kafka
Screenplay by: Giuseppe Fava
Production Design by: Gino Orso
Cinematography by: Thomas Mauch
Film Editing by: Werner Schroeter, Ursula West
Costume Design by: Alberte Barsacq, Roberto Lagana, Magdalena Montezuma
Makeup Department: Lamberto Marini, Werner Schroeter
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Prokino Filmverleih (West Germany)
Release Date: February 1980 (BIFF)
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