Jonathan

What a heartbreaking, soul-stirring and touching masterpiece. This movie drove me to tears, literally, It's a roller coaster of feelings. a German dramatic perfection about love, closure, family secrets and forgiveness and the most beautiful thing about it is its realism, this is not your typical drama. It starts with the story of a boy living and taking care of his dying dad on their farm with his absently present aunt, yet the situation can't but escalate as an old friend comes in and the shadows of the past start to surface and truths get told. We get through the agonizing lives of this characters living at what seemed like a simple life at first, a life that's mostly built on lies causing big wounds for everyone especially Jonathan the protagonist, whom I admire a lot because, as long as these heavy secrets unfold he stood and was always there for his father, shut I won't say more I don't want to spoil the story. This movie is a mosaic about family, forgiveness, and love and if there's one thing you will learn it's that family can overcome everything and it's never too late to make things right and find love even on the bed of death plus the end is very gratifying and warming so prepare the tissues.

Watching the film I was very confused for a long time why this was running in the Teddy section of the Berlinale. The closest the first half hour came to the theme was to display a borderline incestuous relationship between the father and his son. But then again, Jonathan also looked at nudes of his mother and threw himself on top of his aunt, so that's that. The acting was beneath contempt - stiff and wooden. Not for a second did I believe any of the characters to be real, throughout the film I could see the actors attempting to act. The lines were the biggest problem - both the script in itself as well as the delivery of it. It felt so artificial I couldn't help but laugh at certain scenes that were intended to be touching. The film is named after the "main character", yet he is the least thought out character of them all and therefore the least interesting.

For the simple story. for use of details. for the slow pace. for the sensuality and for the fight against past. for the discover of life by Jonathan, interpreted in decent manner by Jannis Niewohner. sure, it is not an original story. but one who could be touching because, in smart way, discover different perspectives about family life,sufferance and youth, giving a wise portrait of pain and last refuge, about desire and love, about a meet who resurrect hidden events, the confusion and angry and vulnerability of a young man for who reality knows profound changes. a farm and a family. and the return of a familiar stranger.and the choice as foundation of own life.

Slow moving, beautiful and touching. It may not be for everyone, but I enjoyed this film.

I don't want to be too critical because this is a foreign language film in a foreign language I'm not that versed in. But it seemed to me that Jonathan moved at a snail's pace and about a third of it could have been cut.

Hunky jock type Jannis Niewohner is in the title role, in America we'd say he was an All American kid. He's working the family farm which doesn't look any different from one in our mid west heartland with his father, taking on more and more responsibility because dad is dying of skin cancer. He's also got an aunt eyeing him like a slab of meat and he does give her a prime cut.

Now that he's dying dad played by Andre Hennicke decides to come out to him. The love of his life was Thomas Sarbacker who now that he's dying sees no need for secrets. He moves on in and that sure upsets the young man and the household.

I've seen this played out in all cultures. Back in the day gay was verboten over there and Hennicke married a woman for convention's sake. Not all that different from Brokeback Mountain.

A nice story, a necessary one, but the pace was way too slow.