'Berlin Alexanderplatz': German literary classic updated

Burhan Qurbani's "Berlin Alexanderplatz" had its world premiere at the Berlinale in February. The latest film adaptation of the Alfred Döblin novel by German-Afghan filmmaker Burhan Qurbani was to be released in the cinemas soon after, but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Born in 1980 in Germany to Afghan parents who were refugees, Qurbani has already directed two films, including "Wir sind jung. Wir sind stark" (We Are Young. We Are Strong), a powerful story of young neo-Nazis in the former East Germany. Social politics are central to his latest film that recasts the "Story of Franz Biberkop" as the story of Francis (Welket Bungué) from Guinea-Bissau.

"Berlin Alexanderplatz" by Alfred Döblin (pictured) is a great early modernist novel. Sometimes compared to James Joyce's "Ulysses," it gave a daring depiction of diverse urban milieus in a new kind of montage form. Grounded in the working class districts and criminal underworlds of inner Berlin, this first modern city novel was also a portent of the Weimar Republic's tragic end.

Döblin's masterwork was long novel with a complex structure, but a huge success nonetheless. Selling well, it was translated into countless languages and adapted for the stage and the screen. Döblin, who was Jewish, fled from the Nazis in 1933, and his books were long banned in Germany. In 1936 he became a French citizen.

In 1931, only two years after the novel was published in Germany, came the first film adaptation release. Director Phil Jutzi created a grandiose character study with Heinrich George shining in the role of Franz Biberkopf. But some critics felt that the film lacked socio-critical sharpness and political relevance.

Half a century later, one of the leaders of the New German Cinema renaissance, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, was at his peak when he decided to adapt "Berlin Alexanderplatz," a book he is said to have read numerous times. Together with lead actors Günter Lamprecht and Hanna Schygulla, he replicated the sprawling dimensions of Döblin's novel, creating a 15-hour epic that premiered in Venice.

Fassbinder's version of the novel was controversial at the time. After its premiere at the Venice Lido, it had several cinema releases but only attracted a mass audience when screened on TV as a 14-part miniseries, including in the US where it developed a cult following. Many years later, the film was restored, released on DVD and recognized as a cinematic total work of art.

As the "Hollwood Reporter" stated regarding Burhan Qurbani's 2020 remake: "It's a brave young director who has the gumption to revisit Alfred Doblin’s 1929 Weimar Republic classic." From left to right, Portugese-Guinean actor Welket Bungué, the director, and actors Jella Haase and Albrecht Schuch pose shortly before the premiere in Berlin. The reviews were mostly positive.