Wolfsburg

Having become a Petzold fan because of his latest films I am looking for some older ones. "Wolfsburg" is from 2003 and Petzold's second feature length movie. After seeing the film myself I am always interested in the opinion of other reviewers. For "Wolfsburg" there are very few critic reviews. Obviously Petzold was rather unknown in these days.

"Wolfsburg" is about a man who kills a child after driving recklessly. He drives recklessly after having a fight with his wife through the mobile phone. In a way "Wolfsburg" can be seen as a twin movie with "Tonio" (2016, Paula van der Oest) in which the grieving of the parents of a child lost in a traffic accident is the central theme.

Right after the traffic accident the driver seems to either panic or be anti social. He drives away, leaving the injured victim to his fate. After that he tries to continue his life / job as if nothing has happened. Here the film fits in a little twist of irony. The main character sells cars and the first car he has to selll after the accident is to a couple having a little baby. We hear him use the safety of a car again and again as a unique selling argument.

After a while however it turns out that the main character is not so insensible and cold hearted as it first seems. From that moment on a modern version of cime and punishment a la Dostoyevsky begins, culminating in a surprising ending.

A man hits a young boy with his car and drives away. The kid's mother tries to find the man who killed her son. They meet. It's as simple as that, and Christian Petzold tells the story in a quite simple way as well. Nevertheless, the film is full of suspense right until the end because of course everybody wants to know whether she finds out about him having done it or not. I won't tell you either, so you can still go and see the movie!

What enhances the suspense is that only in the last few minutes, a musical score can be heard. Up to these last scenes, the soundtrack displays only natural sounds as well as the dialogues which is always quiet, often whispered.

Sometimes I found the dialogues too uninspired and also too Hollywood-drama-like and not realistic. But I guess that is what B pictures are like.

Story about a guy that runs over a boy and flees. But the guilt stays and makes some dramatical changes in him...

The cast was great. Great acting. Specially the main two actors. The story sour-sweet, lovely. Thought the ending wasn't what I expected as from the story flow. I expected something more sophisticated. A peak. But it just flowed away as it was flowing the whole time...actually a great move. Thought the whole movie has a simplicity touch. That makes the scenes even more powerful and brings out the acting of the actors. And as said they were great! The photography is nothing special but worth mention it. Really matches the theme simple but catchy in a fresh way.

A fresh breath from Germany which hasn't made a lot of good movies in the last decade. Really worth seeing it.

M.