rjs-6

Based on a true story, this is a small, issue-based film, not earth-shattering, but intriguing in its depiction of a supposedly free media in 1980s West Germany. The thrills are intellectual rather than action-based--the most frightening chase is in a dream sequence, the only violent death takes place in near-darkness and is messy and brutal rather than glamorous.

As a movie, it also offers a few rare gems: an adult relationship with real warmth and sexual chemistry between 40-somethings Jurgen Prochnow and Nathalie Baye; Peter Coyote seducing Prochnow with guns and chess; and the more amusing assertion that all it takes to make Prochnow unrecognizable, even to the mother of his children, is to put in brown contact lenses. And as an added bonus, I think it's the only time we see Jurgen and Dieter Prochnow onscreen together.

One for the indie audience rather than the masses. 7