The Tin Drum (German: Die Blechtrommel) is a 1979 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Günter Grass. It was directed and co-written by Volker Schlöndorff. Stylistically, it is a surrealistic black comedy.
The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1980 at the 52nd Academy Awards.
The film begins in 1899 with the grandfather of Oskar Matzerath, the main character, being pursued by the police through rural Kashubia. He hides underneath the skirts of a young woman named Anna Bronski, whom he later marries and has a daughter with – Oskar's mother. He evades the authorities until he apparently drowns trying to escape from them. As time goes by, Anna's daughter Agnes has an incestuous affair with her cousin Jan Bronski, a worker in the Polish Post Office, until she is introduced to the charismatic Alfred Matzerath while serving as a nurse during World War I. The two men become firm friends, albeit love rivals, and later Agnes gives birth to a son, Oskar. Oskar has an adult mentality since birth and upon hearing from Alfred that he will inherit his grocery shop when he is an adult, he decides to stop growing by the age of three.
Clasificación [ CM DVD 00869] Disponible en DVD, 4 Piso BJB)