In the near future the dreams of three adult siblings living in Germany or fractured by difficult romantic relationships on the unwitting involvement with terrorist organizations and a growing worldwide panic over the few remaining oil fields in Asia.Read More »
In this tragicomic road movie, unsuccessful young journalist Sebastian Zöllner (Daniel Brühl) is writing an article on the legendary but almost forgotten painter Manuel Kaminski. As Zöllner misuses the reclusive Kaminski under the guise of helping him reconnect with his lost love, Zöllner’s ulterior motive becomes obvious – the sooner Kaminski dies, the sooner he can cash in on the article and become famous. But misuse can be a two-way street – the elderly Kaminski doesn’t mind having someone pay his way to travel throughout Europe, thus escaping the control of his overbearing daughter Miriam. Based on world-renowned Austrian author Daniel Kehlmann’s novel of the same name, this art industry satire highlights the emptiness of blatant self-promotion while taking the audience on a true adventure.Read More »
Berlin, the Prenzlauer Berg district. When this summer day is over, nothing will ever be the same again. Only Daniel doesn’t know that yet. The protagonist of this tragicomic scenario is as unsuspecting as he is accustomed to success. His loft apartment is stylish and so is his wife, and nanny has the children under control. Everything is tip-top, bilingual and ready for him to jet off to an audition where a role in a superhero film awaits the celebrated German-Spanish actor. Popping into the bar on the corner, he finds Bruno sitting there. As transpires by the minute, Bruno has been waiting for this moment for a long time. And so this eternally overlooked man – one of reunification’s losers and a victim of the gentrification of what was once East Berlin – takes his revenge. With Daniel as his target.Read More »
This taut, cerebral thriller by award-winning documentary filmmaker Clive Gordon showcases an outstanding cast and a smart, multilayered screenplay. In this intensely crafted drama, a young backpacker, Chris (Daniel Bruhl), is traveling around Africa when he gets into trouble, loses his passport, and decides to stow away aboard a rusty cargo ship to flee the local police and get back to Europe. Discovered shortly after putting to sea, he quickly realizes that this is no ordinary voyage: it features a crew of hopeless, possibly even deranged, men; a mysteriously inscrutable captain (Peter Mullan), who holds absolute sway over the inhabitants of this insular floating isle; and a ship that seems to be burdened by untold secrets.Read More »
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If not as dense as Godard’s Masculin Féminin, Wolfgang Becker’s Good Bye, Lenin! is an equally playful look at the effects of American globalization abroad. Christiane Kerner (Katrin Saß) is a Communist party supporter who falls into a coma after a heart attack and sleeps through the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent invasion of America’s fast food joints. Looking to spare his mother further injury, Alex (Daniel Brühl) concocts an elaborate plan to convince the bedridden woman that Communism is still very much alive: He videotapes fake news programs to explain the “Trink Coca-Cola” banner outside her window and makes her believe that her favorite brands of food haven’t been replaced by cheap—but apparently similar tasting—knock-offs from Holland.Read More »