Gordon-11 This film tells the stories of a pedicurist, a bird lover, an elderly woman in an old age home, a group of students going for a day trip, a married couple who disliked Germany, a policeman who has a thing for fur, a teacher and a documentary filmmaker. Their lives are very varied but connected in some ways to each other. However, the biggest connection of all is the tragedy of reality. Every character in the film is flawed, and most of them end up in varying degrees of tragedy. It is a captivating film that makes me reflect on life, and appreciate the fact that reality is harsh and unwelcoming. Good things do not necessarily happen to good people is the prominent message.Despite the depressing content, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this emotionally challenging film.

ecomgjk-27-668410 "...And tell them we don't want to rent any Nazi cars like Mercedes, BMW, and Porches..."Just saw about an hour and a half of this waste of my life, today. The ostensible message of this film is that below the bright, shining, cloud-free existences of each protagonist, there lies an unrelenting antagonist. That is not enough to make this worth the time it takes to realize you're not being entertained but manipulated.This director was obviously trying to imitate the plot devices in both Babylon and Crash, in weaving together five stories that end up involving each other. Not an original premise. However, if done properly and in good taste, such plot devices can be entertaining for the short attention spans of modern audiences.Problem is, you've got to have someone for whom you can root, for whom there is at least a modicum of compassion, in any movie that is to be worthwhile. Save for the nursing home mother who becomes the victim of a perverted pedicurist, and a bullied school boy, both of whom end up deceased, no one else in Finsterworld who survives will be given a second thought, regardless of the message.What you're left with is the dubious imagination of someone who has not lived enough to reflect a life that is at least a possibility.

Belden Fox This is one of those movies where multiple characters weave and interconnect through multiple stories which all reach their dramatic conclusions in a burst of activity at the end of the film. Unfortunately whatever charms this movie has in its first half evaporate in the second, when the director tries to inject a false sense of dramatic weight by having almost every storyline devolve into meanness and tragedy. In the final quarter the movie piles on more and more contrived events and inexplicable reactions from the characters, glossing over the more glaring ones by stuffing them into a where-are-they-now montage at the very end. And even the first half relies a bit much on caricatures, such as the German couple who spend an inordinate amount of time discussing how much they loathe everything German while simultaneously reveling in the wealth Germany's economic might has bestowed on them. If you're really in the mood for this sort of thing go watch Robert Altman's "Short Cuts" instead.

the-dark-knight-tdk I had the unique privilege to watch FINSTERWORLD in the final stage of post production. It was actually a tutorial from my Academy, yet i didn't regret watching. Most my German movie experiences were mostly negative. But this Movie had a lot of excitement, adventure, drama, intensity and humor, all very nicely combined.I had very little to "correct" after the crew asked for a review. My resume to this Movie, directed by Frauke Finsterwalder, is: a very good, first movie. Funny moments and dramatic chances in the film. From the beginning to the end a nice adaption from the book.I'm looking forward to see the final version soon. One of a few good German movies i can truly recommend.