Screening Date: May 17, 2026, Sunday, 18:30

Director: Alexander Kluge
Screenplay: Christel Buschmann, Alexander Kluge, Willi Segler
Cast: Hannelore Hoger, Dieter Mainka, Alfred Edel

West Germany / 1979 / 121 min. / Black & White and Color / DVD / German / Turkish & English subtitles

The character of history teacher Gabi Teichert, dissatisfied with how German history is taught in schools, first appeared in a segment of Germany in Autumn (1978). In The Patriot (1979), one of Alexander Kluge’s most important films, she takes center stage. Teichert tirelessly searches for new ways to “embed German history within a patriotic narrative,” digging—both metaphorically and literally—through layers of official accounts, textbooks, and forgotten events.

The Patriot is one of Kluge’s finest essay films. With its ambitious and striking montage, the boundaries between documentary and fiction become increasingly blurred. The fictional character Gabi Teichert, portrayed by Hannelore Hoger, attends party meetings, conducts interviews with politicians, and questions fellow educators. Beyond its documentary elements directly linked to the political debates of West Germany at the time, the film remains relevant today thanks to its original approach to history.

Alexander Kluge was described by The Guardian as “a writer and a key figure of New German Cinema… one of the last representatives of neo-Marxist cultural criticism rooted in the Frankfurt School.” He passed away in March this year at the age of 94. Continuing to make films until shortly before his death, his latest work, Primitive Diversity (2025), premiered in Rotterdam last year. We remember him with one of his most challenging yet characteristic films.