John Noonan
EXPERIMENTAL
Der Nachtmahr
$15.00
Der Nachtmahr, directed by artist/filmmaker AKIZ, wants you to be uncomfortable within the first minute. We are thrown feet first into the life of teenager Tina (Carolyn Genzkow) through an introduction shot primarily in strobe lighting and bright neon colours, to the soundtrack of pulsating, repetitive EDM. If you can hack your way through this visually dense opening, then you’ll be set up for the rest of the film.
Raving the night away with her friends, Tina believes she is being watched by an unseen creature. Although dismissed as the product of an overactive imagination, or perhaps the chemicals she’s taken that night, upon returning to the safety of her home, the shaken teen is convinced the creature has followed her.
When it’s established that the creature and Tina are somehow connected and can feel each other’s pain, Der Nachtmar becomes an allegory about mental health and self-abuse, with Tina’s parents putting her on a heavy diet of therapists. But then that would be narratively too simple for Der Nachtmahr, which goes onto confound as it intrigues.
Whilst AKIZ is happy enough to let the audience in on what lurks in the shadows of Tina’s home, he is in no rush to establish whether it merely exists in his protagonist’s brain. He’s more interested in stoking the fire of our discomfort through aural and visual assaults that leave the audience in doubt as to their own mental health, let alone Tina’s.
A cross between Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers and even Steven Spielberg’s ET, Der Nachtmar is an artsploitation film that is just as beautiful as it is unnerving. There’s no doubt that this is a polarising film, particularly in light of some rather shallow characterisation, but for those wanting something challenging, then step right up.
DRAMA
Goodbye Berlin
$17.00
Maik (Tristan Göbel) is a typical high school inbetweener; shunned by the not-so-popular kids and forever with his eyes set on the cool kids. His mother is an alcoholic constantly in and out of rehab, which his father uses to his advantage in order to have affairs. All of which Maik is quite nonchalant about, seeing as he focuses all his energy on getting girls to notice him. And then without warning, Tschick (Anand Batbileg), a new and unwanted classmate bursts onto the scene.
Adapted from Wolfgang Herrndorf’s novel, Tschick, Fatih Akin (Head-On, The Edge of Heaven, Soul Kitchen) has crafted a coming of age tale that perfectly channels that moment in our awkward youth, when we begin to appreciate that we’re inhabiting a world that doesn’t solely revolve around us. Tschick latches onto Maik and soon, they’re spending their summer driving cross country in a car the former has ‘borrowed.’ This act of thievery is the spark that starts their journey from boys to men.
Maik the voice of reason is drowned out by Tschick’s joie-de-vivre, and the young lad discovers there’s more to life than staying up all night doing pencil sketches of your crushes. Admittedly, Tschick may be a danger to himself, but he’s the shot in the arm Maik needs.
With the story played through Maik’s eyes, however, Tschick is never more than an enigma with only a few hints of a troubled upbringing; Maik remarks at one point that his new classmate smells like his mother after a drinking binge.
In Akin’s hands, what could have easily become a paint by numbers teen flick becomes something much deeper as the film chips away at Maik’s stoicism through the actions of Tschick. An absolute joy to watch, Goodbye Berlin is a call to try and embrace life regardless of our circumstances.
DOCUMENTARY
Dirty Games
$14.00
Sport is supposed to unite us, particularly in Australia. Whatever your background or status, we can all join in watching or playing football, soccer or cricket. However, take a look at the news and it’s hard not to find instances of corruption. Take for example the internal investigations that highlight wrongdoings in FIFA. How does something like this happen in institutions that are built on fair play? Dirty Games, a German documentary from journalist Benjamin Best, takes a behind the scenes look at the machinations and palm greasing that can happen.
There’s nothing sugar coated about Best’s expose. Within five minutes, we are introduced to the family of a Nepalese man whose life was tragically ended when he went to Qatar to help with construction in preparation for the 2022 world cup. Best talks to other men who went to Qatar and have come back with tales of malpractice and severe health and safety issues. Bonite Merisades, former Australian football exec turned whistle-blower, is also on hand to share tales of underhanded tactics.
Best doesn’t just have his sights set on soccer. As he globetrots from Germany to America to Brazil, he discovers that the rot has set in with a number of other sports, including boxing and basketball. It’s not all doom and gloom, as we meet the founder of FC United, a grassroots football club set up in northern England by Manchester United fans in protest to the club being taken over by businessman Malcolm Glazer.
Whilst Dirty Games is delivered in a partly dry manner – there’s no flashy gimmicks or graphics to distract from his accusations – there’s no denying the impact of what we’re seeing. What were once sports that can be appreciated by all are becoming the pursuit of the elite.
SCI-FI
Hidden Reserves
$15.00
Benjamin Franklin once said that ‘in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.’ However, in Valentin Hitz’s Hidden Reserves, that idiom is only half true. Clemens Schick (Point Break) plays Vincent, a Death Insurance Agent in a world where if you can’t afford his company’s policies, then you don’t get to die. Instead, your body is put into suspended animation and used to power databases and, in the case of the women, cultivate babies for those willing to pay. ‘In my day we called it torture,’ one elderly character quite rightly points out. When you take away that one assurance in life from people, it’s unsurprising that they start to rebel.
To battle the great unwashed, Vincent is demoted by his higher ups and told he will get his job back on the proviso that he tracks a dissident by the name of Lisa (Lena Lauzemis), a lounge singer with intentions on smashing the state. Initially desperate to reclaim his status in the company, something about Lisa’s struggle sparks something in Vincent and he finds himself in conflict with his company.
Following in the footsteps of Brazil and the films of David Lynch, the Austrian Hidden Reserves is a sci-fi noir whose novel approach also takes swipes at our dependence on technology. Hitz, who also wrote the film, keeps the colours so muted that that Hidden Reserves may as well be in stark black and white. Most audiences won’t be surprised that a romance of sorts builds between the two leads. However, Lauzemis and Schick are always coolly detached, neither trusting the other and yet, potentially, trying to find a chink in the armour that will justify their mutual attraction.
Hidden Reserves is a brisk and bold sci-fi that shows that creating dystopian societies is not just reserved for Hollywood franchises and YA novels.
