Berlin Alexanderplatz

Modern adaptation of Alfred Döblin's novel from 1929. This film is a fantastical, real-life tragedy. Wondrous cinematography & excellent acting. Truly German cinema at it's absolute BEST!

It's impressive to see the development of German movies in the past years. This movie have everything in my opinion - great storytelling, very good acting / character development, brilliant writing and very good Camera performance. This kind of movies are getting really rare and I enjoyed every minute of it. Please more ....

This film had everything to work. It's loosely based on a good novel, the initial premise sounds good, a refugee looking for redemption is corrupted by his environment in Berlin, the cinematography is amazing (not often the case in German cinema), editing is good, I loved the sets too. Regarding the acting, there were some great moments but it looked inconsistent, in the end I believe the actors did a great job with the poor screenplay provided to them. The story just doesn't work. The relationships between characters are not credibel, they are born out of nowhere, out of nothing, there is no tension there, there is no development in those relationships and it made me not understand nor care about them (all the relationships of the main character, they make no sense to me). Also that villain, it was actually a well written psycopath, but at some point I bet someone fell in love with the cool character they were writing and he started taking way too much space on the story. In the end it's almost a good movie, but it doesn't really reach that level.

Cinematography, art direction and costumes are setting the stage for a few great actors like Albrecht Schuch and Joachim Krol who all sadly fail to bring a flawed script to greatness in this artistic effort. One star each for the above mentioned.

The whole thing, all three hours of it, went nowhere in particular. There are filmmakers who can put together a compelling 180 minute character study, but Qurbani doesn't appear to be one of them.

Most of what made Döblin's novel so interesting is absent here. The updated setting, with its focus on refugee identiy and experience, opens up a world of possibility that the film never really explores in great depth - though it really wants you to think it has. It's stylish, sure, but even that begins to grate fairly quickly. The whispered, whinging voice-over, reminding us every so often what we're supposed to be feeling, is overused and begins to border on the ridiculous.

All in all, 4 stars for some good camerawork and solid performances. Unfortunately, nothing else delivered.