13/02/2022 - BERLINALE 2022: Basing her film on a true story, the German helmer tries to capture the everyday reality of World War II – and the lust for life

In Maggie Peren’s The Forger [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maggie Peren
film profile], Cioma Schönhaus (played by Louis Hofmann) wants to live – not an easy feat in Germany in the 1940s, especially if one happens to be Jewish. He doesn’t want to hide, either, assuming another identity at night and forging IDs during the day. But soon, he might need one himself. We chatted to the director about her movie, which is showing as a Berlinale Special Gala screening.

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Cineuropa: The Forger feels like a caper story at times. It might be because of its playful soundtrack or because of this character, but it’s rather unusual for a film dealing with World War II.
Maggie Peren: I was involved in a movie about World War II before [Before the Fall, for which she wrote the script], and I didn’t want to go back. But then I read Cioma’s book. I just kept reading, all the way until morning. He was lucky – he looked like Germans wanted people to look. He was hiding in plain sight in this beautiful body. But he also had a father who used to take him to museums every Sunday; he went to art school and always said that, for him, forging those passports was like making little pieces of art. There was a huge New York Times article about his story, and Hollywood started calling, but I think it was hard for them to understand everyday life in Germany. No one really makes movies about it.

One day, I heard that the rights were still available, and I called him. He said that in most films about that time, people never say, “Heil Hitler”. He said: “Probably because the sound of it feels so scary.” But everyone used to say it, even when they would enter a shop. Otherwise, you seemed too suspicious. I thought it would be good for people to see how it really felt, trying to survive back then. Cioma is not alive any more, but he was such a wonderful person.

Louis smiles a lot in the film. It’s almost odd.
When you smile, you are trying to make others feel comfortable. I do it, too – when someone asks me about things that are painful, I have a tendency to smile. At first, it was hard for the actors to understand. But when a police officer is coming over to Cioma’s apartment, the aim of the scene was for him to feel welcome. I think that’s how people behaved in order to survive.

It stayed with Cioma for the rest of his life – he wanted to comfort people, even when he lived in Switzerland later on. I think it was something he learnt during that time in Berlin. When Louis tells the owner of the building that he will never come back, he won’t ask for anything and he will keep saying that everything is just fine, that’s such an important sentence. It’s how he used to feel, but I also see it in the way many families deal with the trauma of the Holocaust. Either they keep talking about it constantly or they try to comfort people.

Your characters are mostly stuck in their rooms, in this one restaurant. They barely go outside. Why?
Every time they go out, it’s so dangerous. And, let’s face it, our budget was small. I watched Moonlight again and again. Because I love it, but also because they had no money at all. Its main character remains isolated from the external world, and it really worked in the film – realising that helped me enormously. It was a good lesson for me as a filmmaker, and now, I actually like it the way it is. I wouldn’t change it.

What Moonlight did as well was showing so many different relationships between men, and you do the same in your film. It’s war, but it’s not just about fighting.
That’s actually my obsession – I am obsessed with how people interact with each other. I don’t think you need clichés in order to establish certain connections; you can find other ways. Cioma wasn’t aggressive – he isn’t your typical male character. He actually feels very modern. I always compared him to Yoda from Star Wars [laughs]. That’s part of the reason why I was so happy to work with a generation that’s not afraid of appearing “feminine” – they just don’t care! These actors, they have a different approach to what’s male and what’s female. They were using eyelash curlers on set, and at first, our male crew were eyeing them suspiciously. But it really opens one’s eye!

The way they talk to each other also feels more intimate – like when they discuss why this man is still wearing his wedding ring after his wife has left him. He says: “But I haven’t left her yet.”
She was German. After the war, they returned to each other. Cioma thought it was crazy, but maybe this is what love is? Maybe it was fine that this man forgave her? They were together until they died. Now, you can go to a museum and read about all of this. What I love about these stories is that you can still find out so much more.