User Reviews

Forget everything in connection with the plot or the story of this film. It is bizarre in a forced way and presented most unconvincingly. Obviously, the plot was only a basis for director and co-writer Peter Lichtefeld that gave him the opportunity to convey a certain feeling of melancholy. And this he managed excellently.

Personally, I share his fascination for everything that has to do with trains. So I was quite an appreciative audience for his movie. But I think, Lichtefeld also generally transmits that wonderful roadmovie atmosphere of long and arduous journeys, especially in trains, and by including myths of the Inari lake (the place where the main character heads to) on the one hand and a – completely unmotivated – crime mystery on the other hand, he even manages to create suspense and fidgety excitement. You get a notion that something great is behind all this, although, to be honest, there isn't. Zugvögel is a film for romantic dreamers (and for train fans like me). It is not a thoughtful reflexion of the arduous ways of our lives, or so.

The actors are well chosen: Joachim Król is Germany's melancholy man number one. Outi Mäenpää is exotic enough to tear him out of his apathy (although we never know what exactly it is that attracts them to each other). Peter Lohmeyer plays the thoughtful detective that uses the psychological approach to find the wrong criminal. And *** SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! *** Nina Petri is a secretary so erotically rakish from the start that, of course, she turns out to be the real killer in the end *** END OF SPOILER ***.

I had hoped to see a little more of the picturesque Finnish landscape. Instead, I got pictures of trains and people in trains, and I chose to like it. Either you buy Zugvögel on videotape or you let it fall into oblivion.

"Zugvögel - ... einmal nach Inari" or "Trains'n'Roses" or "Train Birds" is a German movie from 1998, so it will have its 20th anniversary next year. The writer and director is Peter Lichtefeld and it is probably by far the man's most known work. I do believe that the film has certainly its strengths in terms of the screenplay, but the best moments are not as memorable as the weakest moments unfortunately. Until the point where the boss gets killed right after the protagonist was in his office it is still somewhat believable, but honestly this is enough for the entire film. Then we have a cop who stops doing his job basically only to make friends and get closer to our hero and the ending with the truck route feels really false sadly. I know there is an emotional note to it, but it was Weber's big big dream to win this competition and then he sacrifices it for the sake of it. And he knew it all, even if it's just 3 minutes or so eventually looking at the smile on his lips. Quite a pity these moments sunk an otherwise solid film with decent performances. Król was one of Germany's biggest stars at that point and while he did not get the nomination this time with the German Film Awards, Lohmeyer (in his 30s) playing the cop did and he took home the prize too, one of the biggest awards of his career. It is a relatively short film at 80 minutes only, but that's not a problem at all. I think for the first half it was a pretty decent watch, but the turns they took in the second half just disappointed me to an extent where I could not recommend this movie and I don't think you should check it out. Thumbs down. There are many films that combine German characters in a bit of a culture clash with other countries, Asia pretty frequently for Doris Dörrie for example, and here we have the defining Finnish/German film perhaps. Quite a pity. Finland deserves better than this overall.