You can experience first-hand what the mood in Berlin must have felt like in the early 1930s, shortly before the start of National Socialism, in Fabian or The Walk to the Dogs. Director Dominik Graf has created a 3-hour epic based on Erich Kästner’s novel, which you can now stream with a Netflix subscription.
With great cast, brilliant staging and great emotions The Fabian adaptation is a German masterpiece the likes of which you rarely see.
New on Netflix: This is the story of Fabian or Going to the Dogs
The main character of the film is Jakob Fabian (Tom Schilling), who works as an advertising copywriter for a cigarette factory in Berlin in the early 1930s. After work he leaves drift through the capital’s lively nightlife or spends time with his college friend Labude (Albrecht Schuch).
One day Fabian meets the bartender Cornelia Battenberg (Saskia Rosendahl), who wants to become an actress. Always in the background: the social change with rising unemployment and the invisible signs of the approaching National Socialism.
Fabian impresses Netflix with style and great feelings
The first half hour of the film in particular is an exhilarating climax, which the director stages as a wild style fireworks display. You almost feel dizzy while watching because of the different image formats, zooms, cropped black and white images and a party sequence made up of several split screens. Rarely has a German film felt so excessive and wild.
Little by little, the Fabian film adaptation changes from excess to a sensitive love story, which is always a tragic social portrait of the time. Graf observes people who fail or despair of their ideals, who stagger disoriented until they fall over the abyss or who are condemned to loneliness.
Fabian or The Walk to the Dogs is now streaming with a Netflix subscription.
Podcast: These are the Netflix highlights for 2024, from sci-fi epics to fantasy remakes
At this point you will find external content that complements the article. You can display it and hide it again with one click.
From a best-selling sci-fi film adaptation by the makers of Game of Thrones to a rebooted animated series in live-action form and a fantasy film with Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown, many highlights await you in the new year.
*. If you purchase through these links or take out a subscription, we receive a commission. .