Karl May

K.M is a paradox: it's simultaneously the most conventional and ambiguous film of Syberberg's German trilogy, largely due to the absence of his signature tableux which brings his weighty ideas into sharp focus. Was he trying to deconstruct the myth of May? Did May's stories resonate strongly with Germans because they were an escape (from mechanization) and/or expressed a latent desire for colonial conquest? It's a surprisingly subtle work, but it's not in the same class as Ludwig or Our Hitler.

Dense, rich and complex, but not quite as all-consuming as Ludwig or Hitler. Nevertheless, taken together, the three do represent the greatest cinematic effort to understand the spectres, dreams and nightmares of the German soul across a couple of centuries.