Jericho lies at the Jordan, in Palestine, Jerichow in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. That is used to be in the GDR, you can recognize in the movie by the senseless license-plate initials "JL".
Despite the film makers confession that this movie was inspired by "The Postman rings twice", there is for sure another movie, and a German movie, that must have been the direct source of "Jerichow" (2008), although Christian Petzold does not mention it: I mean R.W. Fassbinder's film "The Merchand of the Four Seasons" (1972). Both women - Irmgard and Laura - have no family of their own and married a man whom they never loved. Both Hans and Ali are drinkers. Both are suffering from a heart-disease and both kill themselves at the end. Hans is a green-grocer, Ali sells Turskish fast food. Both women, are relatively attractive and sleep with any other men whenever there is an opportunity. Both Hans and both Ali engage an auxiliary worker for themselves on the basis of confidence, and both wives cheat their men with these coworkers and steal money by aid of them from their husbands. Both Hans and Thomas have been "Blue Helmets", i.e. with the army abroad: Hans in the Foreign Legion, and Thomas in Afghanistan.
While is it possible that Fassbinder had used the Postman-novel or the film by James M. Cain, the "Merchant of the Four Seasons" has much more parallels with "Jerichow" than "Jerichow" has with the "Postman". I still think that "Jerichow" is a very good movie, like all movies of Petzold, by the way, but it is a breach of decorum that the actual source has never been mentioned.
Despite the film makers confession that this movie was inspired by "The Postman rings twice", there is for sure another movie, and a German movie, that must have been the direct source of "Jerichow" (2008), although Christian Petzold does not mention it: I mean R.W. Fassbinder's film "The Merchand of the Four Seasons" (1972). Both women - Irmgard and Laura - have no family of their own and married a man whom they never loved. Both Hans and Ali are drinkers. Both are suffering from a heart-disease and both kill themselves at the end. Hans is a green-grocer, Ali sells Turskish fast food. Both women, are relatively attractive and sleep with any other men whenever there is an opportunity. Both Hans and both Ali engage an auxiliary worker for themselves on the basis of confidence, and both wives cheat their men with these coworkers and steal money by aid of them from their husbands. Both Hans and Thomas have been "Blue Helmets", i.e. with the army abroad: Hans in the Foreign Legion, and Thomas in Afghanistan.
While is it possible that Fassbinder had used the Postman-novel or the film by James M. Cain, the "Merchant of the Four Seasons" has much more parallels with "Jerichow" than "Jerichow" has with the "Postman". I still think that "Jerichow" is a very good movie, like all movies of Petzold, by the way, but it is a breach of decorum that the actual source has never been mentioned.