Fabian: Going to the Dogs

Fabian: Going to the Dogs (Fabian oder der Gang vor die Hunde, 2021) is a German period drama you can watch online on iFILM. Berlin, 1931, the dying months of the Weimar Republic. By day Jakob Fabian writes ad copy for a cigarette company; by night he drifts through the cabarets, brothels and back-room clubs of a city partying right at the edge of the abyss.

Fabian is clever, ironic and passive — he watches an era collapse like a man in a theatre seat, waiting for decency to win out even though he no longer believes it will. His friend Stephan Labude burns with talk of communism and free love. Then comes Cornelia, an aspiring actress Fabian falls for. Her career starts to climb just as his life slides, and tenderness curdles into one more loss. Out on the streets, the brownshirt menace grows louder by the day.

Director Dominik Graf adapts Erich Kästner's biting novel and keeps its bitter wit and jagged, near-documentary texture: handheld camera, film grain, scraps of archival footage. Tom Schilling anchors it as Fabian, with Albrecht Schuch and Saskia Rosendahl carrying the three-hour run without sag. One for viewers who love sprawling European cinema about people crushed by history. Stream Fabian: Going to the Dogs (2021) online on iFILM.