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*

Whanganui     
Monday, 3 May, 7:00pm
 
Tauranga     
Tuesday, 11 May, 6:00pm

Hamilton     
Monday 17 May, 7:30pm

Nelson     
Tuesday, 25 May, 6:00pm

Queenstown     
Tuesday, 1 June, 8:15pm

Auckland     
Monday, 14 June, 6:15pm

Timaru     
Monday, 21 June, 6:00pm

Wellington     
Monday, 28 June, 6:15pm
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​*Non-members welcome by donation (notes only please)​
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German Cinema selection presented in
co-operation with the Goethe-Institut