Sam - Una vita da sassone

Sam is an utterly engaging thrill ride that takes you into he heart of East Germany and reunification - through the perspective of a Black man who experiences a totally different version of history from what we're used to reading about the time. The acting is amazing and the direction is right on, the pacing is great and the whole thing just comes together in a really moving story.

Malick Bauer especially stands out as Sam - I can't believe he hasn't been scooped up by Hollywood yet. Like another review here says, make sure to watch it in the orignial with subtitles. You miss all the great performances if it"s dubbed.

It's worth watching, because it's a true story and the man's life is truly interesting.

But the acting is mediocre. Sound is mediocre. Most songs really didn't resonate with me at all. Cinematography is pretty good. Nice camerawork. Great sets. Wardrobe works. Fantastic story, but not so great dialogues.

A lot of the jokes seemed forced and a lot of old jokes were just reused rather than come up with new things to say. Like the whole coconut thing. They've used that in so many movies already, at least put a new spin on it if you have to use an old joke.

There was a lot of filler, that did not seem meaningful to the story or the main character. It seemed like the producers wanted to stretch a movie into a series.

Just my personal opinion.

How is this getting such a good rating? The main actor did not sink his teeth into the role. Sorry for saying it. I heard great things about the series, watched it and the whole series focuses around a guy who's lived a pretty astonishing life, but the actor gives me practically no growth or transformation. He plays the same guy from beginning to end, even though the things he goes through must have had an effect on him, which it even says in the breakdown of the book.

In the beginning of the movie the actor playing Sam is supposed to be 20, but the actor, Malick Bauer looks just as old as the person the book is based on looks right now.

When you create an autobiographical piece based on a single person, the production falls or thrives with the actor portraying that role. Sadly Malick Bauer failed to make the character believable or likeable.

I love the actual themes the movie addresses and what the actor actually goes through, even going as far as picking a questionable profession early on in the series, considering his ethnicity. Great story. Disappointing acting and character development.

Great series, great story, very interesting and well told.

The dubbing is horrible. I don't know why there was no emphasis placed on the dubbing, but I'll disregard the dubbing for my rating.

I felt like Malick Bauer was trying so hard to use these facial expressions, where he smiles even though he is hurting on the inside, but they didn't connect with me, because they were just all over the place and not meaningful in those moments, especially because he overuses them. In episode 4 or 5 he is walking this girl home and he does that constantly, then has this major outburst and goes back to the grinning. I know what he was trying to do it, but he just overacted badly and he tends to do that a lot in the series. Which is sad, because he seems to have potential. I think this role was just too big for him to carry.

Contrary to the other comments, I don't get the whole problem with him being well build and being such a helpless nerd. I know a lot of gym nerds. What I did find irritating is the fact that the actor often just runs through some dialogues, which makes him hard to understand in German, even for a German person.

If the main actor was better this series could have easily been a rewatchable 7 because the story is so intriguing. I am really torn between giving it a 5 or a 6, but I'm going to go with the 6 because I love the fact that this was made.

As an Afro-German I cannot stress enough how important this story and series is to me. Far too often black narratives are pushed aside in this country and this show is one great example on how to change the view society has on black communities and to amplify black voices and stories.

Congrats to the whole team for creating an outstanding piece of art (in comparison to other German shows)! Can't wait to see what's next for the actors (esp. Malick Bauer) and creators that made this project come to life.

Also: Do yourself a favor and watch it in original language with subtitles as the dubbed version doesn't do it justice!