Reviews

I have seen this movie at the Braunschweig International Filmfestival 2023. To be honest, I was disappointed. The movie tells the story of a young couple where she has inherited a cork oak wood in the country side. The cork is being harvested every year and generates the necessary income. There are many problems the couple has to face. Who is harvesting the cork; how will the house be renovated and how does the house be protected against wood fires occurring often in the area? All these questions generate problems between the two. The cork is being harvested by undeclared workers and most of the story is about the life circumstance of these workers and is being aggravated when one worker has a serious accident. As a viewer we are keen to see how this story develops further and how all these problems are being solved but we are denied to witness this. Suddenly there is a cut and we see the couple in their renovated house with their child on a inauguration party, Apparently all problems were solved, we just do not know how.

I have seen this movie at the Braunschweig Film Festival.The film tells the story of a young self educated piano player which is discovered by a piano teacher and is lead by two piano teachers, one played by the excellent Kristin Scott Thomas, to the final of a piano competition. On this way we learn about the many social problems of the young piano player and the obstacles his environment imposes on his development. Although the story is straightforward and at times predictable it is told in a very interesting and unconventional way. The beginning of the movie is the highlight, the end disappointing. At the beginning the movie confronts us with many questions that are only slowly answered and installs a lot of interest in the story. At the end, the predictable ending is topped with a totally unnecessary addition to tell us about the destiny of the two piano teachers that took care of the young guy and his own destiny after the piano competition. Not only is it a completely different world, in another country, the young piano player appears out of place and we do not know if this is really what he wanted. The movie should have ended with the piano competition. It is even left open whether or not he won it, which is a nice twist.

I have seen this movie at the Braunschweig Film Festival. A very exciting story about a series of suicides that turned out to be homicides, thanks to the attention of a member of the police, who uncovered a lot of unexplained details that made suicides rather unlikely. More over, the police woman has a lot of psychological problems which renders her unsuitable for the job. She cannot look at dead people and when being confronted with the potential killer she breaks down. These weaknesses are compensated with her bright mind and her determination in solving the murders even after they have apparently been solved. After the killer is booked and also committed suicide the cases have not been closed for her. She is so determined that she even risks the live of her daughter at the cost of solving the homicides. At the end, the world has literally turned upside down, the instigators of the homicides got booked but the killers themselve still live on, one of them very close to the police woman. A very chilling ending. The movie was excellent because it is a story that has never been told this way before.

This film is OK, but not outstanding. With a running time of 160 minutes it is far too long and some obviously boring scenes could have been shortened. There are a lot of irrational decisions by the protagonists. If they were funny they could aid the film. However, they aren't. What is funny about eating a sperm soaked petite four? The joke with the fake teeth is overstretched and redundant. Some jokes by the father have even to be declared as jokes by him otherwise nobody would have understood them. What is most ungratifying with this film is the lack of connection to the main character. He was so poorly introduced, I did not feel any sympathy with him. Some of his actions were meant to be funny but were so stupid I felt sorry for him. Even the end leaves you with a "so what?". The daughter keeps her unsatisfying type of job although at a different company and the relationship with her father seems to be just the same as before. Lucky for the daughter, her new job is much farther away from her fathers home. There is hope that he leaves her alone.