DIRECTOR: Thomas Stuber
PRODUCERS: Jochen Laube, Fabian Maubach
SCREENPLAY: Clemens Meyer, Thomas Stuber
PHOTOGRAPHY: Peter Matjasko
EDITOR: Kaya Inan
PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Jenny Roesler
COSTUME DESIGNER: Juliane Maier, Christian Röhrs
WITH: Sandra Hüller (Marion), Franz Rogowski (Christian), Peter Kurth (Bruno), Andreas Leupold (Rudi), Michael Specht (Paletten-Klaus), Steffen Scheumann (Norbert), Ramona Kunze-Libnow (Irina), Henning Peker (Wolfgang), Matthias Brenner (Jürgen), Gerdy Zint (Tino)

FESTIVALS: Berlin 2018

REVIEW

“In the night-time world of an East German supermarket, forklifts glide, crates of alcohol are stacked, and shelves of gourmet foodstuffs are re-filled. Despite the grim climate of ‘re-unified’ Germany, where the economic imperative dictates that edible food must rot in bins, the workers find their own ways to carve out humane spaces.

Rising German star Franz Rogowski (Transit) is immensely watchable, despite few words, as Christian, the new worker with a troubled past taking his first shift in the prestigious aisle of Beverages. Before long, he has fallen for a nearby worker from the Sweet Goods aisle. Sandra Hüller, whom many will recognise from Toni Erdmann, plays the object of his attention. Both shine, as do the surrounding support cast who hold their lonely realities with poignancy and humour. Peter Matjasko’s cinematography delicately captures the bizarreness of this surreal world, in all its magical and heart-breaking poetry.

​Director Thomas Stuber’s delightfully considered third feature fully immerses the viewer in this culturally specific folk tragedy which resonates with films like I, Daniel Blake, portraying the way people slip through the gaps in a capitalist world. It’s simple but deeply suspenseful, and as the screws turn in the plot, several heavy threats hang large…” 

— Jo Randerson, NZIFF 2018

FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS*

Canterbury     
Monday 4 May, 7.30pm
 
Hamilton     
Monday 11 May, 8.00pm

Auckland     
Monday 18 May, 6.00pm

Whanganui     
Monday 25 May, 7.00pm

Queenstown     
Tuesday 2 June, 8.15pm

Palmerston North     
Monday 8 June, 6.00pm

Wellington     
Monday 15 June, 6.15pm

Timaru     
Monday 22 June, 6.00pm

Nelson     
Tuesday 30 June, 6.00pm

​*Non-members welcome by donation (notes only please)​
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German Cinema selection presented in co-operation with the Goethe Institut