Learning to debate with Schopenhauer: Sönke Wortmann’s anti-racism comedy “Contra” is his best film in a long time.
This is how it is with the cinema after the corona lockdowns: Sönke Wortmann’s anti-racism comedy “Contra” was now on the dump for eighteen months. And even if that is no reason to be relieved: at least one has not chosen a topic that has lost its relevance in the meantime. At the world premiere in Cologne last Monday, the film team was visibly pleased with how fresh the film actually still looks. And that even though the original for this remake, the French film “The brilliant Mademoiselle Neïla”, dates back to 2017.
Of course, timelessness can also result from fading out a certain everyday sharpness. As is so often the case in the German comedy mainstream, a constant degree of smoothness in the equipment and photography keeps potentially disturbing fragments of reality a little at a distance. The Frankfurt Goethe University, where law student Naima (Nilam Farooq) opens her first semester, fills the screen spectacularly; just like the prefabricated buildings in Frankfurt’s north-west city, where she and her family of Moroccan origin live. When she hangs out on a rooftop with her childhood friend, the distant towers of the banking district appear like an inaccessible world.
In the cinema, of course, social inequality is not just a question of the right setting. In contrast to France, where popular entertainment is also constantly dealing with class issues, German comedies are mostly set in the middle class. There is no equivalent to the cinema of the banlieue. The lovable scenes with Naima and her friends seem more like traces of the French original than trying to achieve particular authenticity. The characters act in front of, not in these scenes. The question of why it is so difficult for German society to create educational equality is of less interest here. However, what Wortmann transfers perfectly to German conditions is everyday racism.
Naima has tried in vain for an internship at Frankfurt law firms and is evidently rejected because of her ethnic origin. When she arrives a little late for the lecture of law professor Richard Pohl, the color of her skin creates a cultural contrast to the dominant culture of punctuality. It is only the beginning of a degrading, pseudo-smug attack that the student bravely defies. After all, a student is filming the incident, which soon spreads virally on the Internet.
In a just world, the professor played by Christoph Maria Herbst would be suspended immediately – and the film would be over. But the university president (Ernst Stötzner) has another idea: When Naima registers for a debating competition, the rhetoric specialist and Schopenhauer fan Pohl is supposed to coach her. That would take the wind out of the sails of his critics.
At other times this would have been the beginning of a Pygmalion story; Fortunately, the French original already circumnavigated this paternalistic perspective. On the other hand, one can already ask at this point why the young woman does not ask about his true motives. And anyway: shouldn’t a video seen by hundreds of thousands also have a dramatic impact on their lives?
Perhaps it is precisely such inconsistencies that make other, more important qualities of this film emerge. Wortmann and his actor couple let the omissions in the background be forgotten through their joy in playing. Herbst can casually fall back on the persona of his television cynic Stromberg, but Farooq creates something new: She lends her character, which is not written in complex terms, an admirable depth. It is a special achievement to show a figure in a process of intellectual emancipation without appearing to be imperfect or less autonomous beforehand. There is no question that this actress has wonderful roles to come.
On the other hand, it is regrettable that the German script adaptation is far less interested in Schopenhauer than the French original. Only a few of the 38 tricks of his “Eristic Dialectic” are demonstrated. This means that an interesting discourse-theoretical level also falls behind. On the one hand, this comedy promotes the importance of the culture of debate as a weapon against anti-democratic forces. On the other hand, Schopenhauer taught quite carelessly the use of misinformation if it served the triumph of the speaker. His manuscript, created around 1830, is intended as a guide to appear “by permitted and prohibited means” as the person who is in the right.
Nevertheless, Wortmann, who created one of the most original German comedies with his early work “Kleine Haie”, has made his most charming film for many years. A small scene that Naima shows with her friends in the suburbs at the beginning also contributes to this. They play the card game werewolf exuberantly – and don’t seem to notice that they have the best debating club for a long time.
Contra. D 2021. Director: Sönke Wortmann. 104 Min.
