Manila

I've expected a lot from Manila, I even wanted to go to the premiere in Locarno. I thought this would have been the second best movie this year right behind the "Dancer in the Dark". Oh boy, what disappointment with both. "Manila" tries to cover the typical german character traits abroad we all know of: modesty, tolerance and cowardly. The only typical Karmakar trait is that there are still some good things in germans, as shown in the grand finale. The problem with the film is not the content per se, the content is correct, crowds of germans are truly hard to stand abroad, the problem is the quality of the film. Karmakar didn't want to realize that in his childish reaction to the Berlinale rejection. This is his first feature with a big cast and another author. The cast does grossly over-acting, the book (Bodo Kirchhoff) is over-simplifying and just bad. "Manila" is just a typical almost-province stage-drama by Bodo Kirchhoff, nothing more. We'll have to wait for the next good Karmakar, the "Himmler-Project". This has only one actor, should be manageable.

A rather unflattering depiction of rich first world tourists and business people (in this case Germans, but I think it would apply to anyone) stuck in a third world airport departure lounge due to a flight delay.

Slow, repetitive, and in many cases overstated, you do eventually get the feeling that you are also stuck somewhere , waiting for something to happen. The film does however make the point that even people from economically affluent and well organised countries remain at heart uncivilised and crude, and when left to themselves with nothing to do (and enough to drink), the thin veneer of civility and refinement will peel away and expose their barbarism.

There are a few good laughs, and film will appeal to people concerned about the unequal distribution of wealth between the rich "north" and the poor "south" of the globe, and the seedier aspects of exploitation such as "sex tourism", but overall the film lacks substance and interesting surprises.