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Plot

Financed in Germany and filmed in New York, Class Relations is adapted from Franz Kafka's unfinished novel Amerika. Christian Heinisch plays a bourgeois German forced to leave his homeland after a scandal. He accepts his uncle's invitation to move to America, where he takes a succession of "Joe Jobs." Heinisch tries, but he is unable to shake off his old-world customs. Worse, the class structure in Europe never prepared him to have to actually use his hands to make a living. Rather than tack on an ending of their own, writer/directors Daniel Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub conclude Class Relations in the same manner that Kafka left Amerika behind when he died--with the hero's ultimate fate still in limbo.
MPAA Rating:
Not Rated
Genre(s):
Drama
Run Time:
126min.
Theatrical Release Date:
10/04/2002
DVD Release Date:
03/17/2009
Distributor(s):
Sony
Director(s):
Jean-Marie Straub , Danièle Huillet
Starring:
Christian Heinisch
Themes:
Immigrant Life,Fish Out of Water
Tone:
Satirical
Keywords:
German [nationality],bourgeois,class [social],immigrant,working-class
Country of Origin:
USA (02-27-1987)
Language:
German