Sherry Hormann's film, A REGULAR WOMAN, revisits a horrific honor killing in Germany

If you're a foreign-film buff, you will perhaps remember a movie from a decade ago entitled When We Leave, submitted by Germany to qualify in the Oscar category of Best Foreign Language Film. Its subject was the Muslim honor killing of a young woman, and though it was not a very good film, its story has been made into a motion picture once again, this time under the title of A REGULAR WOMAN. The new film is, like its predecessor, German produced but is directed by American-born fillmmaker, Sherry Hormann.

Ms. Hormann, shown at right, has done a remarkable job of telling anew this truly awful tale of fundamentalist religion trumping even the most basic and necessary tenets of family. Her approach is very close to documentary -- using a plethora of "still" shots -- and this not only works surprisingly well, it even adds to the momentum and punch of the wily narrative (the screenplay is by Florian Öller).

Hormann's film begins at very nearly the end of the tale, and her movie is actually narrated by its heroine, Aynur, now deceased, who slyly introduces herself as possibly one of several lively and attractive young women we see on the street.

Then we flashback to Aynur, beautifully portrayed by Almila Bagriacik, first as an eighth-grader about to be sent to her family's homeland, Turkey, to be married to an older cousin who, soon enough, turns out to be an abusive spouse. From the outset, the film steeps us in the "traditions" of fundamentalist Muslim culture -- especially regarding the "ownership" of women.

As the film progresses, we see not only how the current religion, as practiced on the males (especially the young) who attend the mosque, effectively destroys what ought to be a loving family life, but also how this has been going on for so long now that it is accepted as utterly normal by both the men and the women.

Once the pregnant Aynur has returned from Turkey and her abusive spouse to live with her family again, she begins to understand just how awful is the situation for women via these fundamentalist Muslim beliefs. Slowly she begins to respond. Regarding the headscarf: "I start to wonder what Allah finds so bad about my hair."

Rather than simply being a catalog of abuses, the film finds a lot of smart humor and irony in its grievous situations -- without ever losing its momentum or the enormous sense of rage that continues to build up in both Aynur and the viewer. If your blood pressure has not gone into overdrive by the conclusion, I shall be surprised. TrustMovies felt he could use a class in anger management by the time those end credits rolled.

Another worthwhile movie from the newly rejiggered Corinth Films, A Regular Woman hit virtual theaters last month and will eventually find its way to home video, I'm sure. Click here for more information on how you can view it now.

Pair of Fritz Lang's late German films -- THE TIGER OF ESCHNAPUR and THE INDIAN TOMB -- make Blu-ray debut

Fritz Lang "completists" are sure to want to include this (for the most part) very good Blu-ray transfer of two of his last films made in Germany, once the director had tired of filmmaking in Hollywood and returned to his home country, after the Nazis had been defeated (and/or relocated to South America, the USA and elsewhere).

The place of Herr Lang (shown in portraiture/caricature at right) in filmmaking history seems pretty secure to TrustMovies, and so, when I say that these two later films are not particularly good, this certainly should not take away from the fellow's work (Metropolis/M, earlier in Germany; Man Hunt/The Big Heat, while in Hollywood.

THE TIGER  OF ESCHNAPUR together with THE INDIAN TOMB -- available this coming week on Blu-ray in a new two-disc set, with some nice Bonus Features -- should certainly find their way into the collection of Langophiles, particularly those who must have everything. For the rest of us, however, we may watch and watch and find ourselves wondering if maybe the filmmaker's style, as well as his intelligence, had partially deserted him.

The pacing is snail-like, with exposition poured upon more exposition until, as with so many soap operas, you could miss an episode and not have missed anything at all. One the plus side is an extravagant budget (for its day and for post-war Germany), with India seen in much of its glory in a Blu-ray transfer that is quite good, for the most part.

Unfortunately, the first of the films, The Tiger of Eschnapur, is by far the weakest, with the titular tiger(s) the best thing in the movie. German star Paul Hubschmid, as the hero, is rather wooden, but American actress Debra Paget (below) as the temple dancer/love interest proves beautiful and a decent enough actress to somewhat counteract her co-star. Better yet is Walther Reyer (in royal garb, bottom left) as the initially-nice-turned-nasty Maharajah, full of contradictory impulses.

The movie drags and dawdles until you may find it hard to stick around. If you do, good news: The second film moves faster and is more fun, as our hero and heroine escape the Maharajah's clutches (for awhile). The plot thickens a bit and speeds up considerably, and so The Indian Tomb proves more event-filled -- always a good idea for an adventure melodrama.

Ms Paget gets another dance number with a very fake snake (above) in which she is even more scantily-clad (these dances owe a hell of a lot more to Hollywood than to India), Mr. Hubschmid (below) takes his shirt off, and those gorgeous tigers barely make an appearance at all. But the palace intrigue among family, army and priests does hold our interest, at least.

According to history (and the Bonus Features), these 1958 films were actually released here in the USA in 1960 -- crunched together into a single 90 minute feature (each individual movie was longer than that in its original release!) by American International Pictures. Yet considering how slow and repetitive the movies are, one wonder if this more concise version might not have been the best way to view this Fritz Lang passion project. Sometimes, even Samuel Z. Arkoff knew what he was doing.

From Film Movement, in German with English subtitles and running 203 minutes, The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb combo hits the street this coming Tuesday, December 10 -- for purchase and/or rental. Among the several Bonus Features, don't miss the delightful and informative video essay by Mark Rappaport, Debra Paget, For Example. It's a keeper, even if the actual movies may not be. 

With A GERMAN YOUTH, Jean-Gabriel Périot explores the divide in 1960s-70s Germany between the Capitalist establishment and young progressives

Listening to the intelligent and thoughtful words of journalist Ulrike Meinhof  (yes, later to become co-leader of the infamous Baader-Meinhoff group) during a German television interview in the late 1960s is eye-opening.

Meinhof made such good sense then -- truthful, pointed and highly progressive --  just as her words continue to resonate in our current times that one cannot help but wonder from where and when a more current American version of Baader-Meinhof will finally appear. Her words will also make you ask how Ms Meinhof progressed (or depending on your viewpoint, devolved) into what Baader-Meinhof eventually became.

One of the greats gifts of Jean-Gabriel Périot's 2015 documentary, A GERMAN YOUTH (Une jeunesse allemande) -- finally getting a well-deserved theatrical release via Big World Pictures -- is that we here in the USA can at last get a look at Ms Meinhof's life and beliefs in more than the standard, cookie-cut approach (oh, she was one of those crazy, Commie, ultra-left-wing terrorists!) we've heretofore seen and heard.

The other, perhaps not quite so positive, gift is that M. Périot has created his documentary entirely by editing preexisting visual and sound archives. Nothing here is original to his film (except of course the film itself): no present-day interviews with those ever-present talking heads, no narration to connect it all together -- just the archival material.

This is double-edged. Initially it works quite well, pulling us in and making think and re-think. But as the documentary rolls along, particularly toward its end, it begins to spin a bit out of control, with some if not much of what we see and hear making less connectible sense. (This was the experience had by TrustMovies; you may fare better if you have more acquaintance with and understanding of German and European history.)

In addition to what we see and hear of Meinhof, we also see snipitts of students/revolutionaries Andreas Baader (above, right) and Gudrun Ensslin (below), filmmaker Holger Meins, and the lawyer for the group, Horst Mahler. Filmmaker Périot is also able to give us some understanding of the period 20 years after the Nazis, by which time West Germany had becomes a kind of arm of the USA and its brand of Capitalism, an era in which the German youth of the title grew further estranged from its parents' generation out of guilt, anger, shame -- and perhaps some hope of making real change. As we have now seen and experienced here in the USA, as in most western "democracies," after more than a half century, good luck with that change, kids.

The film makes fine reference to the collusion of church and state, of state and media, and to the difficulty of tying politics to art (or vice versa) -- particularly back in 1960s/70s Germany. We see bits and pieces of the Baader-Meinhof 's "terrorism," its capture, imprisonment, and supposed suicides ("inconvenient" prisoners such as the recent Jeffrey Epstein may pop into your mind at this point). The movie should act, for some of us anyway, as a salutary, necessary reminder of the ways in which history is always written by the victors.

And if the documentary does spins a bit out of control, it comes together very nicely at the finale, which features Rainer Werner Fassbinder doing what he always did best. Running just 93 minutes, in German, French and English, with English subtitles as needed, A German Youth opens this Friday, October 11, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Music Hall in Beverly Hills, expanding on October 14 to Laemmle's Royal, Playhouse 7, Town Center 5 and Claremont 5 theaters. Click here and then scroll down to check if other cities and theaters have been added of late.

Coming-of-age in East Germany, 1956, in surprising, wrenching ways: Lars Kraume's marvelous THE SILENT REVOLUTION

Ah, kids, and the things they can up to! What those of THE SILENT REVOLUTION get up to during their final year of high school in East Germany back in 1956 begins as something of a lark, as well as a genuine and sympathetic feeling for those young people active in the protests taking place in Communist-controlled Hungary. The Berlin Wall hadn't even been built back then, so access between East and West Berlin was easier than it would be a few years hence.

What a couple of students see during the newsreel portion of the screening they have snuck into in a West Berlin movie house -- footage of the Hungarian Revolution they would never be allowed to view in their home country of East Berlin, now controlled by the USSR -- influences them to talk their classroom into staging a couple of minutes of silence to honor the Hungarian protesters.

That's all. Nothing special. No big deal.

Based on a real situation that arose in this particular classroom, the movie -- directed and adapted (from the book by Dietrich Garstka) by Lars Kraume, shown above -- turns out to be one of the more compelling, engrossing and moving films I've seen this year.

In fact, the film is right up there with Oscar-winner The Lives of Others in the detailed manner in which it captures life under Communist rule: when anyone -- say, those two boys who go to the movie theater (Theo, played by Leonard Scheicher, above, and Kurt (Tom Gramenz, below) -- proves foolish enough to, even slightly, question that rule.

As the kids' two minutes of "solidarity" slowly becomes "counter-revolution," once the higher-ups -- from teachers to principal to government flunkies and ugly high-level bureaucrats -- become involved, things turn simultaneously ridiculous and frightening, as entire families' lives begin to disintegrate.

The Silent Revolution is particularly good at demonstrating the ways in which this Communist/Fascist bureaucracy invades and threatens the individual, and as this threat increases and the kids are further worn down, your blood will start to boil.

Herr Kraume refuses to make the students simply good or bad; all of them are mixed bags, managing wrong and right as best they can and for reasons that are genuine but sometimes flawed. They try their best to present a united front, but their masters engage in lies and betrayal to break them.

The student for whom all this takes the greatest toll is Erik (dazzlingly portrayed by Jonas Dassler, above and below, left), whose journey from belief to belittlement is excruciating and surprisingly moving. Getting to the truth is one thing but getting any kind of justice is quite another

The film's Spartacus-like climax is just fine, but it's the very final moments that seal the deal. "I'm getting goosebumps," my spouse exclaimed, as The Silent Revolution came to its brilliant, beautiful, breathtaking end. I think you will remember these kids and their predicament for a good long time.

From Distrib Film US and released via Icarus Home Video, the movie -- in German with English subtitles and running 111 minutes -- hits the street on DVD and via VOD this Tuesday, October 1 -- for purchase and/or rental.

(Step)father and son bonding gone awry in Jan Zabeil's tri-character drama, THREE PEAKS

I don't have time to go back and view the beginning of THREE PEAKS all over again, but if I'm not mistaken, this movie literally has only three characters whom we see for the duration of the film: wife and mother, Lea; her son, Tristan; and her significant other, Aaron, who is trying ever harder to be the step-father that Tristan clearly needs -- even though the boy is hanging on for dear life to his birth dad (whom we never see but are made aware of via dad's persistent phone calls to his son).

In Jan Zabeil's 2017 film, just now receiving its American theatrical debut, those titular three peaks refer to the name of the mountain top to which the couple their boy goes on a vacation which takes up the final half (or more) of the film.

Yet these three peaks could as easily refer to the three characters, each one trying to be the most significant and strongest of all. Writer/ director Zabeil (shown at left),  German born and raised, has given us a most unusual movie and a very good one -- in which family dynamics turn into a life-and-death situation without anyone actually being the villain or hero.

Instead, attempts at closeness and caring -- thanks to small, incremental mistakes by an adult, along with the kind of major foolishness from a child that suddenly endangers him and his caretaker -- result in the possibility of utter destruction. The filmmaker is particularly wise in setting up the situation carefully, so that

 

we only slowly and unsurely realize the extent of how troubled is young Tristan, played with a combination of fierceness, fear and caring by the fine young actor, Arian Montgomery (shown above, left, and below, right). His imagined nemesis and actual hope, Aaron, is played with wonderful mesh of clarity, strength and insecurity by Alexander Fehling (above, right, and below, left), of Young Goethe in Love and Labyrinth of Lies).

The third wheel -- unfortunately, by virtue of how the movie is set up and executed, she is just that -- is the wife and mother, played as well as her circumscribed role allows, by Bérénice Bejo. Ms Bejo (below, right) is a fine actress, as she has often shown us, and she does a good job again here, though she is confined to the first half of the film, during which her character demonstrates a love for both her man and her son, as well as perhaps a little too much connection to that ex-husband which abets, without meaning to, some of what happens plot-wise.

Three Peaks is packed with the kind of offbeat, careful behavior found when a family divides and then opens to include someone new. Everyone is just a little on-guard, trying to do the right thing but screwing up now and then. As the film progresses and the situation becomes ever more dire, it takes on the feeling of a thriller, even as it remains a kind of character study of both Tristan and Aaron, and to a lesser extent, of Lea.

Herr Zabeil manages to keep us holding our breath, hoping for the best, even as our sympathies move back and forth between boy and stepfather. We understand how a child can lash out in unjust anger, but we can't help wishing this were happening somewhere/anywhere less fraught than here. Overall, Zabeil's move proves quite an accomplishment, mashing genres into something both provocative and new.

From Greenwich Entertainment and running a slowly engulfing 90 minutes, Three Peaks is currently set for screening in ten cities across the country, opening this Friday, June 28, in New York City at the IFC Center, and then on Friday, July 12 in Los Angeles at the Landmark NuArt. Click here and then scroll down to view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

ENDZEIT: EVER AFTER -- Carolina Hellsgård & Olivia Vieweg's lovely zombie collaboration

If the term lovely seems misplaced in describing a zombie movie, well, you've just got to see ENDZEIT: EVER AFTER to fully appreciate how oddly appealing and attractive is this new film directed by Carolina Hellsgård with a screenplay by Olivia Vieweg, from her own graphic novel.

Oh, sure, there are the requisite zombies running around, attacking the living and eating their flesh, but there's relatively little of this, compared with the usual genre movies -- and what there is is handled smartly, with some graphic subtlety and enough suspense and surprise to pass muster.

Ms Hellsgård (shown at right) and Ms Vieweg have certainly given the film a feminist slant, with its three main characters all women, the main two of which (Gro Swantje Kohlhof and Maja Lehrer, shown below, left and right, respectively) make an odd couple who must finally bond and help each other through some very trying times. Both the two characters and the actresses who play them seem nicely in sync with the movie's themes and arc. They play off each other very well and end up growing close to each other, just as they bind the audience firmly to their spirit and plight.

In addition to its feminism, the film offers a strong humanist slant -- even as it condemns humanity for the destruction of the earth. (Just as in the current South Korean Netflix series, Kingdom, think of these zombies as a kind of appropriate revenge upon the callous, unfeeling politicians and power brokers of our world, even though we never meet the bad guys up close, as we do in Kingdom.)

The story here is fairly simple and minimal. All of Germany (perhaps the entire world) has been destroyed by the zombie plague -- except for two cities evidently smart and fast enough to fortify themselves. From one of these -- in which anyone infected is immediately killed -- the two girls hope to escape to the other, in which a cure is still sought so that at least some of the infected may be spared.

During the girl's travels we get occasional zombie interference, brief but pleasing respites, some lovely and verdant scenery, and a good amount of time spent in the local forest, during which we meet the third important character. She is played by that crackling good Danish actress Trine Dyrholm (above, right, of Becoming Astrid, Nico 1988 and The Commune), and her character -- about which I will say little -- has to do with nature and the earth's ability to maybe care for itself in a way that may remind you a bit of last year's dour waste, Annihilation, but with little of that film's pomposity, ridiculous/endless special effects and millions-of-dollars budget.

Much of Endzeit's charm, I suspect, is due to its humble stance. The production design -- interiors and exteriors -- is terrific, clearly on quite a low budget, while the rest of the technical aspects are handled just as well.

I do wish that the final appearance of one of our three characters showed a bit more in the way of wear-and-tear, given what we only recently saw the poor girl have to endure. I know a happy ending is usually a help, but please. Perhaps the finale is meant to be like waking from a bad dream?

From Juno Films, running just 90 minutes and in German with English subtitles, Endzeit: Ever After opens this Friday, June 21, in New York City at the IFC Center. In Los Angeles, look for it at Laemmle theaters: on June 27 at the Ahrya Fine Arts, on June 28 at the Royal and Glendale, and on June 30 at the Playhouse 7. Other playdates? Can't find any listed. But even if you're not on our two coastal movie capitals, eventually this one ought to find its way onto home video/digital.

Solitude in company: Thomas Stuber's original, bittersweet and beautiful IN THE AISLES

It may not be the first film to adapt a Strauss waltz to an unusual visual, but for the most part IN THE AISLES, the new film from Thomas Stuber (he directed and co-wrote it with Clemens Meyer), is an original work of humanist art.

Beginning with its locale -- a kind of German version of Costco during, mostly, the graveyard shift -- the movie introduces a set of characters who slowly grow on you until you come to love them and want to care for them as though they were your very own.

Mr. Stuber, shown at right, takes his sweet time with all of this, so if you demand action and car chases, do please move along. Yet as quiet as all this is, it is also never for a moment boring.

This is due to a screenplay that doles out its information haltingly and pretty much in the manner that these characters themselves would offer it. They don't like to intrude -- on each other or even, it seems, on themselves.

The actors chosen for these roles are very good indeed, and even if you've seen them previously, the characters they play here will seem ideally matched with the performers.

The young man who acts as a kind of guide for us -- because, as the film begins, he is being trained for his first day on the job -- is Christian, played by Franz Rogowski (above, of Transit and Happy End). The object, soon, of Franz's affection is a pert and pretty co-worker named Marion (Sandra Hüller, below, of Toni Erdmann) .

Our "newbie" (Marion's pet name for Christian) is under the tutelage of long-time employee Bruno, whose initial gruff manner belies a sad heart of gold. As played by Peter Kurth, below, left -- the lead villain (one of them, anyway) from Babylon Berlin -- Bruno is a wonderful character, rich, deep and quiet, and one who grows and grows on us, until....

All of the night shift employees, no matter how small the role, are brought to fine and specific life here. Eventually this small group and its place of work becomes a world in itself, one that we are only too happy to abide in for the 125 minutes we're allowed to. In the Aisles proves a small, alternately bright and dark, wonder.

From Music Box Films, in German with English subtitles, the movie opens this Friday, June 14, in New York City at the Village East Cinema, and in Los Angeles on Friday, June 21, at Laemmle's Royal and on June 21 and over the weeks to come expanding to another 15 cities and theaters, including the Bill Cosford Cinema here in the Miami area on July 5. Click here, then scroll down to click on Theatrical Engagements to view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.