Die letzte Fahrt

The german made-for-television film industry does not lack in capable actors. When these actors are provided with well-conceived plots and intelligent dialogues, the result is a quality production.

Such is the case with the film under review: it tells the story of a husband (Thomas Sarbacher)-and-wife (Julia Jaeger)-with-child (Sammy Scheuritzel) family going through a low-intensity crisis that coincides in time with the sudden passing away of the wife's mother (Bibiane Zeller). The somewhat unpromising premise is elevated by the fact that Julia's parents plied an unusual trade: the transport of freight by barge up and down the Rhein. This has been the entire life of widower (Heinz Baumann) and, left without his only mate, he faces an uncertain future. Julia and son Sammy spontaneously decide to join him for a few days as temporary crew, mostly to escape the problems at home. Shortly thereafter, as a happy consequence of a technical problem with the barge, the crew-of-three is joined by Julia's old schoolfriend (Soenke Moehring) and his daughter (Stella Kunkat).

The movie's appeal owes a great deal to the river setting that works as a parallel universe, affording a perspective from which the problems in the "real world" can be considered more serenely.

The actors deliver performances of great natural. My only regret is that we see so little of Bibiane Zeller.