I have never been to Germany. It’s on my list! Just about everywhere is on my list, but it looks like I’ll be home for a long time. The look of this film stuck me as quintessentially German. It’s filmed in black-and-white, and it is heavy on atmospherics. There are bars, cafes, lots of cigarettes, and even a weird interpretive dance. Niko’s day is mostly ordinary: moving boxes, showing up at an appointment, running into a old friend. But it also has conflicts, including one with his disappointed father. Some of the people around Niko are getting on with their lives, and others are not. He’s reached a point where even getting a cup of coffee has become impossible.
During the course of the movie, he meets a few older people: the grandmother of a drug dealer; an old man at a bar who has returned to Germany after years abroad. Niko starts to see that he can do something different.
I liked this movie and felt like I learned a little more about what it’s like to see Berlin. And now. a bunch of special orders are in at the library, so I will be back to alphabetical order soon.
