Director: Caroline Link, colour, 100 min., 2017/18
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.
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