User Reviews

"Der Weg Zurück", which means "The Way Back", is a German live action short film that premiered back in spring 2016 apprently, so it is only approximately half a year now until this one has its fifth anniversary. There are no less than four writers credited here, which is really a lot for a film that runs for 11.5 minutes only and even 13 minutes only if you stretch it as much as you can with credits etc. to reach the duration stated here on imdb. Anyway, one of these four writers is Jörg Wohnsiedler, maybe the most interesting crew member here. He is also the director and this is his most recent credit in both fields. He has worked in all kinds of different departments, but the one that stands out the most is what he did as a visual effects artist. Some impressive inclusions. His first credit at all was apparently the Oscar-winning "Life of Pi". What a way to start your career and that was not even ten years ago, so he has not been for this long in the industry. And even if his involvement with "Life of Pi" was as minimal as it gets, his challenges increased over the years. I normally don't mentio credits in reviews, but his inclusion in some of these is so surprising that I just have to: "Game of Thrones", "Lost in Space", "Watchmen", "Picard" etc. Like I said, feel free to check out the full list for yourself. In-between, you also see he worked on German stuff, projects from the area he originates from. Anyway, now back to this one here. About the cast there is not too much to say. Some cast members have barely been on anything else and this is maybe what gives this entire thing a bit of a student film vibe. Not sure if there is any great acting included here, even if Sevda Polat is at least really stunning. And another (minor) cast members is called Reinhard Wohnsiedler. Maybe the director's father? I am not sure. But it's not too important either. The story here is about a young men who is really struggling mentally, so his therapist has the idea to take him to a forest where something may or may not have happend to him as a child. This was the first scene. I don't think it looked too good sadly. Again student film level. The camera work is also not too good. It gets better when they actually are in the forest or maybe the director is just getting away with more in this location. Just think of the wild camera movements on "Blair Witch Project". Anyway, it turns into a bit of a psychological horror film there as also some violence is depicted. Not extremely graphic though, even if characters are apparently dying. We, i.e. the audience, rather follow the female therapist there as she has no clue what is going on when her patient runs away from her and apparently we still see his flashbacks and how he sees again what happened back then. Crystal clear. A bit absurd to be honest. It does feel more showy than convincing and two stars out of five for the outcome here is still on the generous side. I would not crucially disagree with somebody who gives it two stars out of ten honestly. This was never a film that came only close to me wondering if I could give it a positive recommendation. Sadly, it is this weak. But Wohnsiedler will be fine. He has strengths in other departments, even strengths that allow him an international career and that is quite something. However, when it comes to (writing and) directing, it may be the wise choice to not work in this area again before he managed to step things up considerably in terms of his delivery. But who knows. He is still young and he seems to be working with really talented and experience people, so maybe not all hope is lost there either and if we are honest, many legendary directors did not exacctly deliver greatness either in their very early career effort. This one here gets a thumbs-down from me. It certainly needed better focus and more talent in almost every department. Watch something else instead.