Film
EUFF 2020: All About Me

by Caroline Link

Fri, 11/13/2020
Online

Presented as part of the European Union Film Festival EUFF 2020

All About Me (Germany, 2018, 100 min), directed by Caroline Link (Nowhere in Africa), with Julius Weckauf, Luise Heyer (Dark), Sönke Möhring (Inglorious Basterds), and others.
 
West Germany’s Ruhr region, 1972: 9-year old Hans-Peter grows up enveloped by a warm and secure but soon enough troubled family life. Ever since his mother’s botched surgery, the eccentric kid has watched her sink into a deep depression, one that eventually leads to her taking her own life. With tragedy hanging over the family, his despondent father leaves Hans-Peter in the care of his kind-hearted grandmothers, whose love and care make it possible for the young “Hape” to survive the emotional turmoil and use his natural comedic talents to heal his own wounds -. all while making people laugh along with him.
 
“All About Me” - whose German title translates as The Boy Needs Some Fresh Air- is a bittersweet origin story about Hape Kerkeling, one of Germany’s most beloved comedians and television hosts. Based on Kerkeling’s best-selling autobiography and marvellously handled by Oscar-winning director Caroline Link, 'All About Me' is an entertaining, sincere coming-of-age story about the therapeutic potential of laughter." – SIFF
 
"Caroline Link has taken on the matter of Hape Kerkeling's autobiographical reminiscences to successfully strike the right note, balancing humour, grief and  optimism.” – epd-Film 
 
“One of the best movies coming out of 2018. Caroline Link turns a private view on the childhood story of Hans-Peter Kerkeling into great cinema. Her movie radiates like the beads of a necklace stringing together anecdotes, comedies and tragedies.” – filmclicks.at 

EUFF Program Guide
 

Awards & Festivals:
German Film Awards 2019: Audience Award, Film Award in Gold, Film Award in Bronze 
Seattle International Film Festival 2019: Golden Space Needle Award 

Caroline Link was born in 1964 in Bad Neuheim, Germany. Her career as a director began with immediate success both at the national and international level when her first feature film "Beyond Silence” (1996) was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film. After completing her second feature film based on a children’s novel by the German author Erich Kästner, Caroline Link directed "Nowhere In Africa", which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003. In 2013, she directed "Exit Marrakech", which premiered as a Special Presentation at TIFF and won the Gryphon Award for Best Film at the Giffoni International Film Festival. With "All About Me” Link completed her 11th feature film project in 2018.