Palermo or Wolfsburg

Werner Schroeter has fashioned a compelling personal epic about an 18-year-old Sicilian, Nicola, who emigrates to Germany. There he works in a Volkswagen factory, falls in love, and painfully adjusts to a new and incomprehensible way of life. When he realizes his girlfriend is just using him, Nicola strikes out in violence at her two boyfriends. Like BREAD AND CHOCOLATE, the film is about the estrangement of the outsider in what is seen as an alien and hostile society. The only difference is that this not a comedy. It also bears some similarities to Visconti's ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, with its theme of the corrupting influence of modern industrial society. The film is neatly divided into two parts, the Sicilian half, with its sunny, warm photographic style and the German half, which becomes grayish and grim. Nicola Zarbo is fine in the lead role among a cast of mostly unknown performers. At three hours the film is a trifle too long but thoroughly involving.