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Nuevos Talentos
TIME Europe - 26 de Julio de 2004 - 
New Wave Wunderkind
Bad times make for good art. Meet some of the shining stars of Germany's cultural comeback
MOVIES: The star of two of the most acclaimed German films in decades, DANIEL BRUHL has become the reluctant poster boy for his country's cinematic revival
First, he charmed the world — and broke German box office records — in Good Bye, Lenin! as the devoted son trying to hide Germany's reunification from his ailing mother by plying her with Spreewald pickles and other beloved products from the erstwhile G.D.R. Then he starred in The Edukators, a political thriller about three young idealists who kidnap a rich man to protest rampant capitalism — and it received a 10-minute standing ovation at the Cannes film festival in May. If Good Bye, Lenin! and The Edukators are signs of a German new wave, then actor Daniel Brühl is riding the crest.
With top billing in both films, Brühl, 26, has the kind of open, innocent face and understated, slightly geeky cool that audiences warm to — Tobey Maguire with an umlaut. He's become the It Boy of Germany's cinematic comeback, a role he seems uncomfortable playing. When asked about it, he quickly brushes the issue aside: "I try to keep that idea away from me, not take it too seriously." All the credit, he says, should go to the people behind the cameras. "German film is more successful now because young filmmakers have more guts and more self-confidence to tell stories about other aspects of German history, not just the Nazis," Brühl says. "And we've stopped making stupid comedies. It's not a German quality, being funny." Funnily enough, he's joking.
Despite his youth, Brühl has had almost two decades of acting experience. The Barcelona-born Berliner started in children's theater, moved on to radio plays when he was 8, and spent some time dubbing feature films (he also speaks Spanish and English) before appearing in his first movie at 16. Since then he's appeared in 21 TV and feature films and earned armloads of best actor awards.
And he's just getting started. At the end of the year, Brühl appears in the 1930s drama Ladies in Lavender alongside great dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. Soon he'll be in Romania to shoot "a French film about World War I" and will make a movie with German actor-director Sebastian Schipper. He's also considering a project with his TV-director father. His main goal: to land a role that will erase the image from Good Bye, Lenin! that made him a star in the first place. "I'd like to be an asshole next," Brühl says. "To shock people. And stop them asking to take pictures of me holding jars of pickles." — By Jumana Farouky
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