In Berlin, the alcoholic street musician Bruno Stroszek (Bruno S.) is released from prison and while returning home, he invites the prostitute Eva (Eva Mattes) to move to his apartment and leave her two abusive pimps. His paranoid friend and neighbor Scheitz (Clemens Scheitz) has taken care of his apartment and his piano while he was imprisoned. On the next day, Stroszek plays accordion and glockenspiel on the streets to raise some money and when he arrives home, he finds Eva beaten and the two pimps humiliate him. The harassment continues and without any option, Stroszek, Eva and Scheitz decide to begin a new life in Wisconsin, where a relative of Scheitz lives. The trio of friends travels to the United States of America expecting to make money and accomplish the American Dream. Bruno works in a auto mechanic and Eva as a waitress in a diner, and they buy a prefabricated house despite the concern of Bruno with the installments. When the bank threatens to take the house due to delay in the payments of the loan, Eva enters in the prostitution again with truck drivers to raise the necessary money. Sooner Stroszek discovers in a tragic way the sad reality of the American Dream.
"Stroszec" is a powerful and realistic movie about losers and the American Dream. The screenplay is original and unpredictable like life is, with magnificent lines and Werner Herzog uses also amateurish cast leaded by Bruno Schleinstein from "The Enigma of Kaspar Hause", who is the unwanted son of a prostitute that spent a great part of his life in mental institutions due to the severe abuse and beaten; therefore, the actor has some problems indeed and the beginning of the film is very similar to his real life. The conclusion is open to interpretation and I believe that Stroszek shot himself. I do not understand the meaning of the dancing chicken; with regard to the frozen turkey, I am not sure whether it is a symbolism indicating that Stroszec wanted to return to his origins in Turkey since he is Turkish-German, or if it is Thanksgiving in USA at that moment and he ends alone without friends just with the turkey. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Stroszec"
"Stroszec" is a powerful and realistic movie about losers and the American Dream. The screenplay is original and unpredictable like life is, with magnificent lines and Werner Herzog uses also amateurish cast leaded by Bruno Schleinstein from "The Enigma of Kaspar Hause", who is the unwanted son of a prostitute that spent a great part of his life in mental institutions due to the severe abuse and beaten; therefore, the actor has some problems indeed and the beginning of the film is very similar to his real life. The conclusion is open to interpretation and I believe that Stroszek shot himself. I do not understand the meaning of the dancing chicken; with regard to the frozen turkey, I am not sure whether it is a symbolism indicating that Stroszec wanted to return to his origins in Turkey since he is Turkish-German, or if it is Thanksgiving in USA at that moment and he ends alone without friends just with the turkey. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Stroszec"