Merry Christmas Deutschland oder Vorlesung zur Geschichtstheorie II

In the early 1980s, Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck studied directing at Berlin's German Film and Television Academy and made "Merry Christmas Deutschland oder Vorlesung zur Geschichtstheorie II" as part of his studies, an atmospheric, lucid and politically astute essay in which the director's signature approach to non-fiction that would flourish further in later works is already on display.

Utilising contradictions and counterpoints, these dense but unhurried 18 minutes pair rephotographed television clips of German parliamentary debates with footage of the city’s drab post-war architecture – at times inserting additional colour by way of solarization and other experimental flourishes – all set to Vivaldi, Miles Davis and nondescript audio snippets about shopping and a desire for world peace. In lieu of a first-person voice-over, Peck inserts ironic dictionary definition intertitles of words like "optimism" and "democracy" alongside selected citations, including Prussian General Clausewitz’s declaration that "wars of educated people are less gruesome", a guiding fallacy that Peck rallies against, and has continued to confront in the decades since.

Source: 72. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)