Everything Wrong with ‘Where Hands Touch’
I know the title says everything, but believe me when I say we don’t have the time to deep dive into ALL the details of this movie. Consider this a brief walkthrough of memorable moments from this cinematic hot mess. Let's start by talking about the director Amma Asante. Her niche is telling the stories of interracial couples in different historical eras. One of her earlier movies, "Belle" [about Dido Elizabeth Belle] is an old favourite that I've rewatched many times. It nails Dido's complexity as well as the identity conflict she would have felt and its representation of an interracial relationship doesn't negate her black experience. That's saying a lot for a story set in 18th century London.
Where Hands Touch focuses on the forgotten victims of the holocaust – the affectionately nicknamed 'Hitler's problem' or the Rhineland bastards. There was a sizeable population of biracial kids living in Nazi Germany who suffered great tragedies that we aren’t taught about. Amandla Stenberg plays Leyna the result of a relationship between an Aryan woman and a French-African soldier who had been stationed in Rhineland after WWI. These kids were denied their German citizenship because of their paternity, yet their mothers’ statuses placed them in a place of privilege compared to non-Germans. The perfect recipe for an identity crisis and some palpable internal conflict which I think was handled pretty well in this film. Much like the treatment of the Jewish population, the isolation, segregation and attempted eradication of the Rhineland kids was carried out in stages. The Nazis’ strategy encompassed marginalisation, social and economic isolation. Starting with stopping them from attending schools or working and eventually ‘recruiting’ them into concentration camps. Germany’s biracial population was also sterilised and forbiden from "committing their mothers' crime of race-mixing". More on that later. Despite it not being the focal storyline of the movie, the line that Leyna walks – being called a monkey, a mulato and "the product of the worst of all people black and all people white" is explored frequently in this film. Her mother [Kerstin] bears some of this 'shame', having to live in a world that tells her that loving her daughter is a betrayal of her country.
"There are days when you wonder what your role is in this country and what your future is in it." - James Baldwin
The movie starts with the above quote, which in itself tells you that the intent was to educate and make a statement instead of you know, glossing over all that to focus on Leyna's crush on a skinny white boy who just happens to work for the Fuhrer. In his review of Asante's, "A United Kingdom", New York Times Writer Glenn Kenny states that the director "addresses contemporary concerns via period romance, and her commitment to the romance is not a feint." In some situations, she can get away with that, in a film meant to be about the struggles of a biracial black girl in Nazi Germany, the unwavering commitment to a love story is distasteful. Don't get me wrong, I love a romance more than most people but not here. Not now. Not in this film. ‘Where Hands Touch’ even has all the components of a standard rom-com: the cute meet, awkward first encounters, and because they're kids – the disapproving parents being told something along the lines of "but I love him/her!"
Leyna’s love interest Lutz [played by George MacKay] dreams of the glories of war and he finds great proud in his German heritage - a trait shared by Leyna. Being products of a very similar environment, they share a lot of the same traits though they might present differently. Lutz is completely unaware of the errors of his country's ways and like many young men in times of war, he would lay down his life for that same country. He would also do literally anything to protect Leyna, including killing someone as a diversion or shoving dirt in her brother [Koen's] mouth. Leyna, on the other hand, has been raised to resent her blackness and leans so far into her German heritage that she outrightly rejects her black French father and is willing to betray any other 'outsiders' if it will help to prove her alliance to Germany. In writing this, I can't help but remember a moment from Hasan Minhaj's 'Homecoming King' -
As immigrants, we always have to put on these press releases to prove our patriotism. We’re auditioning. We love this country, please believe me. Nobody loves this country more than us.
I can't even begin to understand how Leyna feels but I also have to say that the way this plays out makes her a highly unlikeable character. Which maybe is a positive because it takes skilled writing to ignite such strong feelings? Unsure.
Lutz's character is a bit of a trip, he's very human and very awkward, and sometimes very sincere. The humanisation of Nazi's was a point of contention from some critics regarding this movie which I disagree with. It might be uncomfortable for us to think about but Nazi's were [and are] people. People with hateful intentions and ideas and thoughts. But people nonetheless. That being said, there were so many Lutz moments that left me dumbfounded to say the least. Honourable mention goes to the introduction of 'negermusik'. Whilst trying to compliment her, Lutz mentions that she looks like a lady on the cover of one of his dad's illegal jazz records. It was meant to be sweet, but it felt a little too much like fetishizing. Let’s not forget the not-so-smooth transition from Leyna talking about how after Jews were banned from public pools, she was also banned which she because of her parentage couldn’t understand. Instead of spending some more time on this, Leyna and Lutz go straight to splashing each other in a lake no more than 500 metres from a Hitler youth meeting. I just cannot for the life of me understand why they committed to this love story so strongly, nor can I understand why Hollywood keeps trying to sell the whole black women dating nazis thing - see Neo Ned].
You know the sterilisation I mentioned earlier? Let's talk about that. Stopping kids like Leyna from having children was instructed under the 1933 Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseased Offspring (if you'd like me to spell it out for you, diseased here means black). These kids – considered to be the worst of all people black and worst of all people white – had their chances at continuing their family lines taken away from them as a twisted way for them to 'right' their mothers' wrongs. In the film, Leyna's mother Kerstin pays her brother in law to help fake some sterilisation paperwork – it's heartbreakingly beautiful how much hope she holds onto for a better world, one where Leyna has the chance to be a mother, be that something she chooses. That's not where it ends though, because every sterilisation came with an agreement that the individual would have no sexual relations whatsoever with Germans. Though Kerstin hopes for a future where the contract would be void, Leyna refuses to sign, making a statement about her heritage and her rights and all that jazz. So though they have the fake papers, they're not signed and are therefore illegitimate. Well more illegitimate. They do provide Leyna with some security, that is until they're burnt by some Nazis during an inspection. Yay for corrupt law enforcement. Along with her sterilisation papers, they also burn her birth certificate, figuratively taking away her claim to German citizenship. Clever, and definitely a power move but yuck.
With her paperwork no longer in order, Leyna is obviously at risk. But technically, the only way it could be proven that she wasn't sterilised is if she got pregnant. In walks Lutz. I don't know how stupid the writers expect us to be but I have a hard time believing that Leyna would be willing to risk her freedom [and her life] just to have sex. And yet she does. Leyna feels unsafe walking to her house because of an ongoing raid so Lutz gallantly offers to hide her at his house until it's safe to come back. To set the mood they slow dance to jazz and Lutz further fetishizes black women. Then we transition from Lena voicing her fear that the Gestapo will eventually find her to them having sex for the first time. During a raid. With no protection. On a dirty carpet.
After this ever so sweet moment, Lutz walks her home because it's after curfew and Leyna will be arrested on sight if she's caught outside.
The most heartbreaking scene in this movie comes soon after - Kerstin gives herself up to the Gestapo in exchange for her daughter's freedom. Believe me when I say that woman is the best part of this movie and by far the most well-written character. For the sake of the plot, Leyna gets pregnant. Of course. Lutz gets drafted early. Of course. And in a few moments, Kerstin’s gallant sacrifice is made redundant. Of course. She gets captured and moved to a camp after a failed attempt to escape by throwing a Jewish woman under the bus. Not literally, though it might as well have been because wow that was hard to watch. For the sake of this post, I won't delve too deep into every scene from here on out mostly because a lot of them are annoying in the same way that earlier scenes have been. After watching her friend get shot having had to deny everything that she was for the sake of survival, Leyna commits out loud to living out life as a German negro, no matter how confusing it will be. The truth is Leyna and the Rhineland kids as a whole were never given a chance to love the land they were born into. The world around them has been at war with them since before they were born so of course, all they've ever known is being at war with their identities. We don't get to explore this theme or Leyna's resolution though because of the bogus love story that's front and centre to this production.
Events of [some] significance from the last half hour of this two-hour wild ride include Lutz finding out he's a baby daddy then proceeding to plan an unsuccessful escape with his baby mama. Because this is a love story veiled as a political statement, Lutz and Leyna get to share some romantic moments together whilst the world around them remains both literally and figuratively on fire. To his credit, Lutz is somewhat sincere in his love. This annoys me because it proves once and for all that the aim of this movie was centred around making Lutz a viable love interest. He does later deliver the line," you wear the mask that will get you through the war, if it allows you to survive” which is 1. quite profound and 2. makes me hate him a little less. Not to sound like a broken record but the fact that they don't spend a lot of time on this annoys me. I also wish they would have addressed how much more strained their relationship dynamic became when Lutz was transferred to that camp. Instead, we're expected to just adjust to it and move on with our viewing?
Spoiler alert, the war comes to an end, the prisoners are freed and in a last-ditch effort to save his son from the authorities, Lutz's dad shoots him. Leyna obviously gets a front-row seat to watch this play out. Later, she is shaken out of her state of shock by a black American soldier who then places her in a displaced persons camp. If I had more time I'd discuss how monumental this is because of how she'd been rejecting her black father's validity for so long only to be rescued by a similar character. Someone who her nation would have just as much of an issue with. Someone whose loyalties lay not with the Germany she'd grown up in. But I digress. Many weeks in, Leyna finally decides to start looking for her family. As she makes her way to the directory tent [I don't know what to call it], she is met by her mother and Koen. The movie ends with Kerstin embracing Leyna's round baby bump. Sweet isn't it?
Amma Asante set out to make a movie about identity crises, about being a product of your environment, about the Rhineland bastards, about the racial conflict in Nazi Germany and instead made a movie where a black girl risks her freedom because of a semi-cute white boy. Many have argued that ‘Where Hands Touch’ romanticises Nazis but I don’t agree, the problem here is that every deep or interesting or nuanced topic that could have been explored here, took second place to this bogus love story. To be honest I have MANY notes on things I would have liked to see - ranging from more Kerstin to an exploration of Lutz's relationship with his father with a detour at Leyna's superiority complex. But unfortunately we’re stuck with this movie as it is. Sadly.
