Schwarze Schafe

„Pure delight! The Berlin scene at it’s wildest, kinkiest, weirdest funniest best. The discovery of the season! Why aren’t there more films like this?!!” Ron Holloway - Moving Pictures

„…a riot of filthy-minded fun … packed with affectionate digs and in-jokes about contemporary Berlin an the misfits an black sheep it’s powered by punk rock spirit and overheated libido … an anarchic multi-stranded odyssey that gives Clerks 2 a run for its money on the sexual deviancy front.” Wendy Ice - The Times

„Very refreshing” Leo Bankerseb - De Filmkrant

„Black Sheep was definitely the most provocative film I saw at the festival. Having said that I was, as a result, one of the shockingly hilarious. It genuinely received the greatest number of horrifies belly laughs of any press screening I attended.” Marshall Veniar - Glasgow Herald

I was curious about the movie since having seen some scenes on the official website. And these were brilliant and promising. But after having watched 15 minutes, I wondered whether this was going to be a parody or if the exaggerated clichés were meant to be plausible. Regrettably I still do wonder. There are a few scenes which - although they were predictable like everything in the movie - made me smile, but all in all it was too shallow to be sophisticated and too lame to be funny.

This movie could have been an interesting witty portrait of different subcultures in Berlin - of goths and heavy metal-heads, of gays, of life in social housing and of the 3rd migrant generation. Leaving out the scenes presented on the website only a superficial, longish trash-TV sketch remains.

This is dirty, filthy and frenzied cinema, with an array of cataclysmic characters, hell-bent on creating a modern cult classic. The foul-stench of comical entertainment pollutes the air, but smells of fresh originality. The film's five ludicrous story lines brings the viewer close encounters of the worst kind of Berlin inhabitants, including Satan worshippers, sexually-frustrated teenagers, a drunk lottery winner and a foulmouthed tour guide. The vulgarity of it all will prompt the odd nauseous belch from audience members, but the humour outweighs the crudeness and Oliver Rihs' black and white film blinds with comic crudity and colour. Black Sheep may not break the bank at the Box-Office, but it is almost certain to cause a stir in DVD sales.

No pun intended - I actually don't know how the saying came about - and it seems to translate into languages too. German and English for sure to name two languages that play a role here. You have Berlin - the location of the story and movie ... and the characters apparently are giving vibes that people who live there connect too. That said, I do think you do not have to live there to get the movie/story and the characters.

Liking them on the other hand? A different story - there are some really good actors involved in this - quite young but many of them made a career and if you follow and watch German productions ... well you probably will recognize some.

There is some nudity here too - even the last frame may shock those who can't handle some skin ... don't drown in that ... feeling (no pun intended). A weird drama with many stories to follow ... and full of surprises I reckon ... like life? Well not mine ... but then again ...

This is low-budget-movie-making at it's worst. After 10 minutes (which are good for some laughs) you start to notice painfully, that there is virtually no script or story. And the jokes don't get better either. Instead the director follows the old teen movie-method the more disgusting the funnier. But since there is no story to speak of and since there are no sympathetic characters, you just don't care what happens to the these people. Instead you get angrier and angrier, because the film is noisy and hysteric all the time but hasn't got anything to say. It's a shame that a lot of good actors are wasted (although I wonder what made them join this film...)