The Sandman - a review

When German and Swiss embassies promoted language with ‘The Sandman’

ByTunji Ajibade

It proved to be an event with a double-edge when the Embassies of the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland in Nigeria jointly hosted the cream of the society recently. The event which was organized as a German-Speaking evening with a cultural content featured a fictionalized story of a Nigerian child and the film, The Sandman. Screened for the enjoyment of guests, and as part of the activities to promote the German language, the film called attention to one of the more popular European languages as well as made the event a soul-searching one, especially with its obvious exploration of the humanity of every individual. The Sandman was directed by Peter Luisi, was shot in Switzerland, and starred Fabian Krüger as Benno, and Irene Brüggeras Sandra; it had Swiss-German and German as the spoken language, while it had English subtitles. 

From the onset, the audience was given the orientation that Benno, the lead character, was as ordinary as any other man on the street. He had a menial job dealing in rare stamps, and he ripped off people who inherited rare stamps but hardly realized the value of what they brought to the shop that Benno ran with two other men. He had an attractive girlfriend, but he lived a floor above a coffee shop run by a not-so-attractive Sandra who was a singer, and who had been preparing herself for a local talent show. Both did not like each other, and Benno made it worse because he belittled Sandra, talked down her talent as a singer and harmed her confidence each time he came to her shop for a cup of coffee. There were glimpses into dream world where both lived happily together as lovers, Benno as a music conductor, Sandra as an orchestra singer, but in real life, they were neither. 

There came the crisis that tipped Benno’s world upside down; he woke up from a dream and found sand on his bed one day. This became the unavoidable, irrevocable challenge that set the movement of the story into motion. Escalation of the crisis was in the harmony of both his external world and his internal world that was upset; he went everywhere losing sand, and he lost more when he was insincere, when he said ‘yes’ while he meant ‘no,’ when he praised Sandra that he didn’t like, praised her coffee that he hated, said she was talented when he didn’t mean it, or told his business partners lies. He knew he was losing life by loosing sand, and he also lost weight, so he went about in search of help. At a part he said to Sandra whom he had always treated with disdain: “I am loosing sand,” and to which, when she realized the seriousness of the problem sais, “You need help.” Although Benno arrived at the discovery that led to change ultimately, Sandra played a part, and so did a psychic, Dimitri, who mentioned that Benno’s problem might have its origin in his dreams – dreams he had regularly and in which he was a music conductor, and Sandra a singer – and he also mentioned Beethoven’s ninth and last symphony. This piece, apart from several other interpretations, has been summarized by some to mean “quest for freedom,” and, creation in the beginning that was chaotic, but from which order eventually emerged.

One strange thing was that the sand from Benno could make those who sniffed it sleep, and whoever he had contact with in dream also experienced the dream with him. And so much of the comedy part of the story came when the protagonist chose to get away with some of his deceptions by making his victim sniff the sand; he too sniffed it like hard drug to send himself back into the realm of dreams as way of escaping his misery. There was a point when Benno had to face up to the deceptive aspect of himself, realize that he somewhat made himself a debased being when he refused to be honest, failed to be his real self. Beyond Benno, the Sandman, there was a larger message for every human being as to the need to live up to the truth at all time, and that it is the more important thing even when it hurts one directly, or others. 

Speaking earlier at the event, the German Ambassador in Nigeria, Mrs Dorothee Jantzke-Wenzel, noted that part of the reason for the event was to encourage the speaking of the German language, and she went on to debunk what she regarded as myths about the language. She pointed out that the German is not difficult to learn, and she stressed the advantages of learning to speak it. The Swiss ambassador, Dr Andreas Baum, also addressed the audience that included members of the diplomatic community and prominent Nigerians. The Deputy Head of Mission at the German embassy, Mathias Veltin, as well as First Secretary, Attaché for Economic and Development Affairs, Sophia Armanski, threw light on the strong, and long-standing cultural relationship between Germany and Switzerland as well as significance of Beethoven’s ninth symphony that was much a part of The Sandman’s storyline. One of the attendees, Mr Jeong Sun Suh, the Director of South Korean cultural centre in Nigeria, described The Sandman as “profound,” while he admitted that it was one film that would take a while for anyone who watched it to digest. Also Mrs Badejo, a Nigerian who speaks fluent German expressed her pleasure at the powerful allegorical use to which sand was put in the film.

The event also included the reading of the fictional biography of Najim, an imagined Nigerian baby. The story was about the life of this seventh billionth inhabitant of the world as conceived by a German-speaking Swiss newspaper. Najim’s life covers many surprising events in a world gradually turning upside down.