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The Devil of Kreuzberg
Germany 2015
produced by Alexander Bakshaev, Mathis Vogel, Ludwig Reuter (executive), Raymond Miller (executive) for Carnie Film Production, Yellow Bag Films
directed by Alexander Bakshaev
starring Ludwig Reuter (as Ross Indecency), Sandra Bourdonnec, Suleyman Yuceer, Jingwei Li, Miguel Sepreny, Sofia Velasquez, Max Fernandes Silva, Jennifer Brigant, Naiden Angelov, Sarnt Utamachote, Alexander Bakshaev, Justine Assaf
written by Pippo Schund, music by Alexander Zhemchuzhnikov, Rita Ataide Novais, songs by Spettro Family, Cornflakes 808, Bonifrate, Brom, Bemônio
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Jakob (Ludwig Reuter) is a successful writer - but he chooses to live
in relative anonymity in Berlin Kreuzberg. One of the few people he lets
near himself is his girlfriend Linda (Sandra Bourdonnec), whom he loves
very much, and who loves him back ... but here's where the problem starts,
he has a recurring nightmare that Linda will kill him, and over time he
becomes more and more convinced that this nightmare will become reality
eventually. Plus sleeping becomes an impossibility, and that really tears
him down. The real problem though, Linda, despite all the love she
feels, is really out to kill Jakob, not for personal reasons, but because
she's a "creature of the fog", and her raison d'être is to kill
Jakob, no matter how much she might fight it. Jakob asks his best friend
Kurt to kill Linda for him, just so he can live (and sleep) in peace
again. This shouldn't be a problem for Kurt, as he not only really cares
for Jakob, but he also is a contract killer by trade. Problem is, he isn't
quite as successful in his job as he claims to be ... The
Devil of Kreuzberg seems like a film misplaced in time, it's highly
reminiscent of genre cinema of the 1970s and 80s, with its slightly trippy
story, its art rock and new wave musical score, its artistic ambitions and
borrowing from nouvelle vague and arthouse cinema, and its whole approach
to genre filmmaking that's free of post-modern self-irony and
Tarantino-isms. That said, The Devil of Kreuzberg is hardly a
derivative movie, it does tell a very original story with high drama and
even points of humour, directed in a wonderfully un-flashy way, carried by
subtle performances and highlighted with a few exciting setpieces. Really
worth a watch!
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