Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Keller - Teenage Wasteland" is a German-language movie from 2005, so this one is already over a decade old, and it runs for pretty much 1.5 hours exactly. It is the only filmmaking effort by writer and director Eva Urthaler at this point and given the fact that she did a decent job here for the most part I find it a bit disappointing that she has not made any other films. The cast is basically a multicultural mix as the female lead is Italian, there are several Austrians in here, a Serbian and the two male lead actors were both born in Berlin with one of them obviously having exotic roots as well looking at his name. Trepte and Moya were under the age of 20 when they made this one and Urthaler also wasn't 30 yet which makes Friedrich and Rocchetti look like seniors almost. Anyway, one personal problem I may have had with this film is that Trepte and Moya are both actors that I do not really like that much. But it's all subjective. The Italian actress in the center of it all i do not even known, but I have liked Georg Friedrich for quite a while and I wish he could have had more screen time.Anyway, this is the story of two young men during difficult phases in their lives and their loneliness, frustration and lack of direction results in them committing a terrible crime, namely abducting a clerk from the local supermarket. But after they did, they are just as clueless not only when it comes to their lives, but also in terms of what to do with the hostage now. Obviously money was never a factor here, it all resulted from boredom. Through unlucky coincidence (for the captors), the woman's boyfriend gets on their trail and the situation escalates completely quickly afterward. I think this was already the third time I watched this film and I still like it. I believe the script here is the biggest strength as especially the subtle parts about one character's homosexuality were done extraordinarily well. There are more than just a few scenes that deal with this subject and somehow even give a human side to the possibly least likable character of the film. In movies with such a low quantity of characters, it's always a bit tough because those that are there need to be especially memorable, but Urthaler succeeded to that regard as well. The only thing I did not like too much was really the female protagonist's masochist tendencies as they crossed the line at times I must say and it did not feel too authentic to me. as a consequence I also did not like the ending very much. But with Rocchetti's stunning looks, I can certainly live with it nonetheless. If you enjoy watching films like the one I mentioned in the title, then this one here is certainly worth checking out. I even managed to ignore my dislike for some of the actors thanks to the interesting and tense plot. Go see it!

lazarillo This flawed but interesting movie is about two teenage German boys who attend the same private school, but are from very different social classes. They embark on a decidedly homoerotic friendship with the wealthier but less bisexual of the two becoming the dominant partner. When the rich boy is insulted by a female liquor store clerk (Elizabetta Rochetti) after she catches him shop-lifting, the pair impulsively decide to abduct her and hold her captive in an abandoned warehouse owned by the rich kid's father. But their seemingly helpless victim finds a way to drive a wedge between her two volatile adolescent captors. . .This story is quite believable in the bi-curious relationship between the two adolescents (even if both actors look a little long in the tooth for these roles). The class dynamic is also very interesting. I didn't quite buy the psychological resourcefulness of the woman, however, but I would blame in on the character on the page rather than the actress. Elizabetta Rochetti was memorable as the sexy blonde in Dario Argento's "Do You Like Hitchcock?", but she's done other things like this and "The Embalmer. She goes through a lot of acting paces in this film (even if it's not very believable a single character WOULD go through all these paces). She gets kidnapped after some unsatisfying sex with her boyfriend sends her down to the laundry room to, uh, finish the job in a sexy masturbation scene. Then she's a believable victim who suffers a great deal of humiliation from her sexually confused captors. And finally she's a sexy femme fatale who turns the table.This movie kind of reminded me of the recent British film "The Disappearance of Alice Creed" (with Gemma Aterton in the Rochetti role). This movie makes the bisexual/gay male captors confused adolescents, and functions better as a "coming-of-age" film, but that film was more generally believable. Both are certainly worth seeing though

jm10701 How does a movie like this even get made, when there are dozens of extremely talented directors who can't make movies because there's no money? Regardless of how little it cost to make this one, it was too much.The two kids are very good actors, but their characters are the most obnoxious thugs I've seen in ages and should have been killed off early. But then we would have been left alone with the duck-lipped Italian woman and her gross, greasy German boyfriend, and God knows: NOBODY deserves such a fate.Watching this movie is torture! I felt like I was tied in that chair with Duckwoman for 95 minutes. The ONLY interesting thing about this movie is that her armpit hair didn't grow even a millimeter during her days of captivity. Now, does that sound like a movie worth watching?

Mr. Bug This is a disturbing and powerful first film from a woman director who did no other films before that and went to no film school. You can't tell from the film. It looks like the work of an experienced professional who knows exactly how to direct the cast and use the language of film to get the desired effects. Two teenage boys meet and strike up a friendship in a short time. They are caught stealing in a supermarket by an employee, a young woman. They are thrown out by her. They follow her home... In no time the boys and we, the audience, enter another world as Jeffrey does in "Blue Velvet". A disturbing world of the human mind where the lines between victim and perpetrator, right and wrong, the normal and the abnormal start to dissolve. The film is deeply disturbing because it goes to extremes, but stays believable, even plausible till the end. The cast is excellent throughout. No doubt this film will be controversial which might cost it the main prize here at Locarno. But on day one we have already seen what might be the most important film in the competition this year.