Betonhjerter

Well, having heard about this film in the past few months I just rented it from the local video rental store and I must say that I'm very torn, as to what I feel about this film. There are very positive sides to it, but unfortunately also some negative sides.

Let me start off with the negativity first, to get it out of the way.

This film is a clear example of a new directors debut feature, a lot of technical mistakes is made. Calling the director a debuting director may sound strange to some, but he produced adult films for 17 years before he decided to quit the business and produce serious films instead. It is painfully clear that he have underestimated the art of film making, you'll see what I mean when/if you see this film - I truly think he should have spend more time in the pre-production faze and thought it out more. I sincerely hope he learned a lot of things from this production, considering the fact that he is - according to IMDb - planning more futury films. (I'm quite positive about those films though, this film still showed a lot of potential!!!)

NOW - the positive sides; There is a very touching story behind it all. Muhammed is a second generation immigrant living in the ghetto of Vollsmose (one of the most feared ghettos in the entire Denmark, and the film is also shot here!). He wants to get out of the criminal environment in which he has been living and it works just fine for him, he's got a job and is really on the right path. His best friend, Johnny, however, who is a white male, has a tendency to mess it all up for both himself and his friends - Muhammed included. Even though a social worker named Pedersen does his best to help Johnny, whose girlfriend Sussi is pregnant, he keeps messing up and dragging Muhammed down with him, so Muhammed has to take a stand once and for all.

It is a very nice story, happily free of stereotypes and ugly clichés. Every actor in the film - both the professional ones and the "real" ones from the Vollsmose-area - does a beautiful job (apart from overacting by Gry Bay). The only negative thing here is that I think the director should have done a more solid job of introducing the characters into the story.

Amar El-Khatib who plays Muhammed is very convincing and it's hard to believe he never received any acting training prior to this film. He lives in Vollsmose and the story is in many ways about himself. The film even contains some quite disturbing video footage of him as a child, but it would spoil too much revealing more about it here.

I truly advice people to see this film, but you have to be able to live with some technical problems during the film - it is however worth it, if you can manage not to focus too much on the problems but turn your focus to the story!

7/10

I'm sure there was a good story (or at least just A story) behind this script but where is it? This is the worst messed up piece of - I hesitate to CALL it film-making - I've ever seen.

This looks more like a cheap video documentary than an actual feature you can rent in your local videostore (which is the actual fact - I found this at Play Time Videos), it simply looks amateurish.

The actors are clearly quite talented - well, most of them anyway - but they clearly struggle with a lousy script and you could wonder why they took on this assignment in the first place.

Things get a little clearer with some background knowledge; this film is directed by Michael Ziele who've made a living of directing cheap porno movies for about 17 years and it shows - clearly he woke up one morning and though, "hell, my porno movies takes a day to shoot and edit and it's finished - how hard can it be to make a dramatic movie"? Well, I surely hope he realized it wasn't as simple as that, cause according to the films website he has got a few more "serious" films on the way.

4/10 - but only because the actors obviously try their best...

Yes, this is a debut feature film! Yes, this is extremely low-budget!

But, that is not a valid excuse, for making a movie as bad and poor as this one!!! Only one good element in this film, and that is Michael Zile's own cameo role - he's actually pretty good here. Beside from that it really stinks! Sorry folks, but that is a fact!

The story/script is messy, filled with plot holes, many loose ends, written with no dramatic sense at all and very poorly written dialog.

The camera-work is far the worst ever and so is the sound. There are moments in this film where you can't hear a damn thing. The sound man is credited at the end of the film - I wouldn't have dared to be credited for such a lousy and awful job if it was me!

It's shot in full-frame on DVCam (video) and they haven't even tried to give this film a "filmlook"in post-production. It's so easy now a days!

Even the title-design is damn ugly (if you can call it a design?)

All the technical aspects of this film is far the worst I have ever seen. Clearly no one involved in this film have any idea how to make a film....AT ALL!!! This film only took eight days to shoot - perhaps they should have used eight more......seriously.

The actors are all amateurs. Some directors have success with the use of amateurs (like in Nicolas Winding Refn's PUSHER II), but this is just awful, and it may even make you laugh. I know did. I wouldn't call them actors, and I wouldn't call this a film - this is a home-video, and everyone would be better off NOT watching it!!!