Home from Home - Chronicle of a Vision (2013)

It might have been a silly idea to sit through a 4-hour movie without having seen the TV-series on which it is based. Because no, I haven't seen Heimat, of which Home from home: Chronicle of a vision (dir. Edgar Reitz) is a prequel. The story is set in the early 19th century village of Schabbach and the themes that reside at the core of the film are the longing to emigrate (to Brazil!) and the bonds of family. Gustav and Jacob are two brothers. Gustav is the perfect son, the perfect laborer, the one who makes the right choices. Jacob is the dreamer: he learns indian languages and dreams of faraway lands. As it happens, they fall for the same girl, the mute Jettchen. The tensions developed in the film concerns the struggle between realism and dreams. The voice of the film is almost entirely Jacob's. The problem with this is that Jacob's pretentiousness risks becoming the film's pretentiousness. Reitz works with neat B&W images that are sometimes interrupted by a speck of color. Home from Home clearly grapples with big issues: what is a home? What is a nation? What is realism? But somehow, these issues never really get gritty. I don't know whether the main disappointment is the script or the aesthetic choices Reitz has made. Societal upheavals lurk in the corners, and for me, this remains the most interesting dimension of the movie - Reitz skillfully works with hints, rather than full-blown analyses of social and political change. By all means: if you have 4 hours to spare and take an interest in a detailed exploration of rural life in 19th century Germany, Home from Home provides an engrossing viewing experience. For my taste, this film contained a bit too much of romanticism. // Werner Herzog appears in a cameo - that is maybe the funniest moment of the film, which does not otherwise excel in the department of jokes.