User Reviews

"Transpapa" is a German 90-minute film from 2012, so this one has its 5th anniversary this year. Writer and director is Sarah-Judith Mettke and this was her very first full feature film after some short film works. Lead actress is the young Luisa Sappelt and it's not surprising she is nowhere near the level of fame compared to the other actors in here, Striesow mostly, but also Borgmann and Haberlandt, maybe Kasumba. But it is a bit surprising that neither Sappelt nor Mettke have worked on another film after this one until now. It's not bad enough to be a career breaker to be honest, but it's not particularly good either, so I am not too mad or sad about their lack of upcoming work. It's the story of a teenage girl meeting her father again with the interesting addition is has undergone gender correction surgery. Is that the right term? It sounds so strange. Anyway, now you maybe think of Transparent right away, don't you? The title is similar, the subject is similar, hell the main character (grown-up) even has his own idea of a name how he wants to be called now that he is a woman. But it is not a transparent copycat in movie form as actually this one here came first and that is respectable to me.

But it's tough to find anything else that is positive about the film. The acting was surprisingly shallow, especially by the lead actress. Striesow is also all about the costume and never about giving a good performance. And the supporting players are forgettable. Especially Sachtleben is not half as effective as they wanted his part to be, the old man in the second half, the epitome of a baity supporting performance, but it all felt for the sake of it and never works as a great character study or coming-of age tale, which is so disappointing with how much the 2 in the center had to offer. Instead it goes for cheap comedy at times like the girl running into his naked "daddy" at one point or weed jokes or bizarre boob references. That is stuff you'd expect in a Schweighöfer or M'Barek or Liefers comedy. In a garbage film to be more precise. It would be unfair to call this film such too because it has its moments when the potential is at least slightly fulfilled. But as a whole, it is really just a film to entertain the simple masses and never on a level where it impresses with any of its production values, especially not the story-telling that is among the weakest aspects. And as it is the key aspect, that really hurts the overall product. The forced (somewhat) happy ending is the best example. So overall, I give this one a thumbs-down. It really is a missed opportunity and you should not check it out. Go see something else instead.