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Schlaf
Sleep
Germany 2020
produced by Verena Gräfe-Höft for Junafilm/ZDF (Das Kleine Fernsehspiel)
directed by Michael Venus
starring Gro Swantje Kohlhof, Sandra Hüller, August Schmölzer, Marion Kracht, Agata Buzek, Max Hubacher, Martina Schöne-Radunski, Katharina Behrens, Andreas Anke, Benjamin Heinrich, Josefine Schäferhoff, Samuel Weiss, Stefan Böth, Yun Huang, Bianca Riebow, Frank Schroeder, Michael Schröter
written by Thomas Friedrich, Michael Venus, music by Sebastian Damerius, Johannes Lehniger
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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For years now, Marlene (Sandra Hüller) has had nightmares a certain
place, and now that she has found that place is actually real and a hotel
somewhere in rural Germany, she pays it a visit - and has a mental
breakdown so severe she has to be hospitalized. To be close enough to the
hospital to visit her, her daughter Marlene (Gro Swantje Kohlhof) gets a
room in exactly the hotel in question, a country hotel with big ambitions,
and starts to investigate what might have tipped her mother over. It's
off-season, so her investigations hardly go unnoticed - but the hotel
owners Otto (August Schmölzer) and Lore (Marion Knecht) couldn't be more
forthcoming and make it a point to answer all her questions, even the
uncomfortable ones, like the one about the series of suicides in the
hotel. Eventually, Mona happens upon a name, Trude (Agata Buzek), someone
she's sure is a vital piece of the puzzle, but try as she may she can't
place her. But when she asks her hosts about it ... she eventually ends up
tied up in the place's basement, while upstairs in the conference room,
Otto spouts wild Nazi ideas to the receptive locals. But not all is what
it seems at first glance ... So ok, the Nazi reference actually
comes a bit heavy handed in Sleep, but if you look at German film
output of the last few decades, this really seems to be the way to have
one's film officially funded. But to tie down the movie to just this one
point would really be missing the point as it really is a fascinating
labyrinthine mystery that has a David Lynchian aura of surrealism to it,
without ever going into carbon copy mode though. And within all the
weirdness going around that makes sense only gradually, a strong ensemble
cast keeps things grounded, making things accessible - and all the more
fascinating for it.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Thanks for watching !!!
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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