The Devil of Kreuzberg

Just caught an early screening of Russian independent Alexander Bakshaev's The Devil Of Kreuzberg; which merges Bakshaev's love for European horror and avant drama. It is also his longest running film next to his earlier statement on cinema ''Naked Trip''. The overall mood of the film is one of dream-logic territory with it's subtle touches of odd humour and surrealism. The straight forward story is paced steadily in a series of engaging set pieces and moments of flourishing beauty, along with moments of padding which actually works in it's favour. His characters seem suitably detached and are kept vague which enhances it's logically twisted tone and doesn't compromise the nature of the fantasy, but lead Suleyman Yuceer stands out as hit-man Kurt who is tasked with murdering his best friend's succubus girlfriend. Bakshaev has made a highly enjoyable marriage of art and trash here and I hope it reaches a wider audience in future screenings.

The story is a bit choppy, but if you let the wild, adventurous avant style just carry you through the film you get a pretty good notion at what is happening with these characters. It is a very surreal film filled with creative, odd moments of off beat situations, obscure dialog with an almost complete emotional detachment by the characters. There are also pretty killer scenes that embrace all that is giallo, or Italian noir- which ever you choose , Bakshaev shows his love all that is Eurocentric Avant cinema. The acting is well done, and the cinematography is great. For me personally the soundtrack, especially the instrumental 80's inspired music is the real star of "The Devil Of Kreuzberg". It held the film together and actually made the mix of dreamlike moments of odd behavior, and the thriller scenes with character interactions work nicely together. The film is off beat and there is very little actual horror in the film, but it is all just underground, indie art-film creativeness.

Overall I found "The Devil Of Kreuzberg" captivating, and hypnotic. It is very stylized, and heavy on the art-film side as opposed to giallo so a lot of people are not gonna get Alexander Bakshaev's vision here. I for one fill jipped for not knowing about this director earlier on, now I have to go back and watch his earlier works. There is a big play on fantasy, corruption of self, and questioning of emotion and relationships in the story that play out cleverly. The backgrounds and scenes are interesting and add to a more experimental side of avant-garde. There are elements of Warhol and Hugo Ball that echos through inspired concepts clearly meant as an homage to D'amato and Bava. I enjoyed "The Devil Of Kreuzberg" but I admit that it isn't a film that will reach a large fan base beyond the "film as art" crowd.