Swans

Germany is a bleak country. Dying is no fun. The young are cynical and devoid of humane feelings. Air ducts look so impersonal.

Such deep observations could be expressed within a 3 minute flick. Instead, this movie drags on for hours.

Mercilessly, we are treated to an interminable procession of images of ex-Eastern German industrial cityscape, counterpointed by the close-ups of the suffering protagonists mired in the laconic moral wasteland.

I want my life back. And so probably does the rest of the audience at the Wroclaw film festival. At least one third were dozing off, without the benefit of a pillow, only to jump up contorted and wiggling at a louder scene. The ones who have not left by then, that is.

You know bleak movies are not there to be entertaining from the get go. It's not a happy-go-lucky film. It has light moments of course and I won't be telling you what direction it decides to go (and if that was a wise choice or not). What I can tell you though is that the direction, the script and unfortunately the acting, is not really up there to match any viewing experience that might warrant anyone to watch it.

There are loose strings in the story, there are things happening that seem not to connect with anything in there and there are many other things that may make you think why watched the movie in the first place. Now I do believe in good intentions and I am pretty sure the filmmaker at hand, wanted to tell a personal story (with a personal touch to it). While I admire the fact that he didn't try to make it commercial, I also have to admit, that I don't think this will really appeal to a lot of people.