With: Meinhard Neumann (Meinhard), Syuleyman Alilob Letifov (Adrian), Vyara Borisova (Vyara), Reinhardt Wetrek (Vincent), Veneta Frangova (Veneta), Kevin Bashev (Wanko)
Director/Screenplay: Valeska Grisebach
Producers: Maren Ade, Jonas Dornbach, Valeska Grisebach, Janine Jackowski. Michel Merkt
Production co: Komplizen Film, Chouchkov Brothers, Coop99, KNM, ZDF-Das Kleiner Fernsehspiek
Photography: Bernhard Keller
Editor: Bettina Böhler
REVIEW

German director Valeska Grisebach (Longing) turns a keenly observant eye on the macho environment of a German construction camp on Europe’s eastern frontier.

“It’s better to forget the title of Valeska Grisebach’s Western while you’re watching it... Though this brilliantly observed mood piece about a German road crew arriving in rural Bulgaria centres on one lone quietly watchful man doing his best to assimilate, it feels as true to, say, the builders’ milieu of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet as it does to an oater.  Our quiet hero Meinhard (Meinhard Neumann) aside, the crew behave brashly when they arrive, camping on a hill and raising a German flag, but soon find their work stymied by lack of water and the non-arrival of gravel.  Meanwhile Meinhard has borrowed a white horse from a local fixer, and gang boss Vincent has upset the villagers by ducking a local girl in the river.  The film unfolds from these tensions in deeply satisfying intimate, brooding encounters.”

— Nick James, Sight & Sound
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Monday, 1 April, 8:00pm

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German Cinema selection presented in co-operation with the Goethe Institut