Based on the memoirs of the comedian Hape Kerkeling, whose childhood in the Ruhr Valley was shaped by coal dust and the carnival season, the story told in All About Me is funny, sad, and warm all in one. The young Hans-Peter (later nicknamed Hape) realises early that he has the gift of being able to make others laugh: his grandparents, the customers at his grandmother's general store, his fun-loving relatives, the parents of his classmates – the only person whose spirits he can't lift, try as he might, is his depressive mother, who kills herself when he is nine years old.

Recklinghausen in the Ruhr Valley, in the early 1970s. Hans-Peter is nine years old and a bit on the chubby side. But that doesn't deflate the self-confidence of the happy-go-lucky little boy, for with his jokes and parodies he can make anyone laugh – a talent that serves him well later in life when, as Hape Kerkeling, he becomes one of the most popular and best comedians of Germany. This film by the Oscar-winning director Caroline Link (Nowhere in Africa) is based on his memoirs.

For all its comedy, All About Me also offers an exacting look at a society of suppression and at people who, still traumatised by the Second World War, need to laugh as much as they need air to breathe. Something that Hans-Peter comes to understand early. But when it comes to the most important person in his life, he fails: his depressed mother commits suicide when he is nine years old.

With a flair for detail and a variety of affectionately drawn characters – such as the concerned and caring grandparents, the fun-loving relatives, and other people typical of the Ruhr region – the biopic provides a warm milieu study and a portrait of an epoch in the history of the Federal Republic.

Reviews and Commentary

"From great tragedy comes great comedy, and anyone who has ever wondered what shaped Hape Kerkeling's warm-hearted humour and characters (from Hannilein to Horst Schlämmer) finds the answers in his 2014 book, All About Me. When he was nine years old, his mother took her life. [...]
A tragicomedy that truly merges both laughter and tears. And that shows humour as an effective method of defence against the impositions of life. And that celebrates, without a false note, the extended family as a foundation upon which one can stand. And a work of linguistic art that showcases all the scintillating nuances of the Ruhr Valley slang, its coarseness and directness, its honesty and joviality. The language used is never artificial, it breathes real life. Those leaving the cinema may be tempted, in the future, to take the edge off of life by means of 'dat' and 'whut'."
(Oliver Kaever, Zeit Online)

"The young Julius Weckauf, who was discovered in a stationery shop in Monchengladbach, is a godsend. Hape Kerkeling surely looked and acted just the same as a child. Kerkeling sees it that way, too: 'I can't help but say that I was for one deeply touched when I saw that child acting, and secondly also seriously impressed. He truly has talent, charisma. He is funny, he is dramatic – in this respect, I was very pleased when I saw the first rushes of Julius.'"
(Krischan Koch, NDR)

"All About Me is [...] a summer movie. The scenes are lit with wonderful warmth. It looks a bit like that which Dad's super-8 projector used to cast up on the big towel screen at home. The light and the warmth are promptly there, carry the film, keep it bright and light, even when gloomy times befall the family.
The reconstructed Recklinghausen through which Caroline Link lets Hape, his grandmothers, and his aunts ride, dance, walk and drive, is no lifeless Disneyland of a lost miners' world. One never tires of looking at the things of yesteryear, the details; one wants to pause the movie and tell one's kids and make a fool of oneself. Like a well-restored Opel Rekord, this diorama has signs of wear but still lives and tells stories behind the stories."
(Elmar Krekeler, Die Welt)

"Ultimately, All About Me deals with the old question of how one becomes the person one is, of how one's childhood continues to influence, characterise and determine one's adulthood. What's so touching is the longing of getting in touch with the despairing child that one once was, to comfort that child, and to take that child into one's arms and tell that child that everything will turn out fine. In the film, it's done like this: shot, reverse shot, fast cut – and the little Hans-Peter and the adult Hape exchange glances and wave to each other and smile. It's a kitschy solution, but it works well here.

Sentences from Kerkeling's autobiography are also read in voiceover – sentences that underscore that he is more than just his traumas, that rule out any and all fatalism, and that see a connection to the world as the source of resilience: 'And at the same time, I am also Aunt Lore and the direction on the dirt road that she's pushing me in the baby carriage. I'm the piebald cows in the pasture, the yellow corn on the field, and the red poppies on the side of the road. I am the narrow trail and its end. I'm the cloudless sky. I'm awake.'"
Wie seltsam, wie tröstlich. (Elena Meilicke, Spiegel Online)


Frederik Lang, 11.07.2019

Production Country

Germany (DE)

Production Period

2017/2018

Production Year

2018

color

color

Aspect Ratio

1:2,35 (CinemaScope)

Duration

Feature-Length Film (61+ Min.)

Type

Feature Film

Genre

Comedy

Topic

Relationship / Family

Available Media

DVD, DCP, Blu-ray Disc

Original Version

German (de)

DVD

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic (ar), Chinese (short), Croatian (hr), Thai (th), Lithuanian (lt)

DCP

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic (ar), Chinese (short), Croatian (hr), Thai (th), Lithuanian (lt), Russian (ru), Czech (cs), Hungarian (hu), Polish (pl)

Note on the Format

Thailändische und englische UT separat und auch gemeinsam im Bild

Blu-ray Disc

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic (ar), Chinese (short), Croatian (hr), Thai (th), Lithuanian (lt), Russian (ru), Czech (cs)

Note on the Format

Thailändische und englische UT separat und auch gemeinsam im Bild