Im Schatten

Berlin school goes genre film - Thomas Arslan's gangster film "In the Shadow"

While Usain Bolt becomes a legend at the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin's Olympic Stadium, Small-time gangster Trojan (played by the great Misel Maticevic), comes up with new plans to make ends meet. In doing so, he comes across supporters and opponents. Trojan doesn't shy away from violence either. It happens as it has to in a gangster film.

With great attention to detail, closely observed and cast with fantastic actors (including Karoline Eichhorn and Rainer Bock), the German director Thomas Arslan depicts the life of a criminal in modern Berlin. Although we have rarely seen the capital on the big screen. Cold, distant, without a glimmer of hope!

At the 2010 Berlinale, Arslan, a representative of the Berlin School, presented his first genre film, which proves that even the seemingly passive observations of the Berlin School can be used to tell stories with high tension. A great film that raises hopes that German cinema will rediscover genre films and add new facets that can only be found here in Germany.

View! Amaze! Immediately! Absolute recommendation!

Im Schatten is a work of classicism – a straight-up crime film juxtaposing the mechanics of a career outside the law with clear-eyed views of industrial Berlin.

The protagonist, Trojan (Mišel Matičević), is a professional who always acts purposefully, with control and precision. An effective, propulsive score describes a life of constant motion; and photography of fluorescent interiors (shot with a Red camera) perfectly captures a world where night always reigns.

Real crime, we are reminded, is seldom a solo act. Like any other human endeavor, crime is a collaborative business where you need confidence in your colleagues and careful analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.