Jargo

Maria Solrun wrote and directed this slim film that purports to be a coming of age film (yes, yet another!) with too few variations from the ordinary to make it remarkable. Picture This! productions can usually be counted on to bring us interesting conceptual films: this one simply doesn't belong.

Jargo (Constantin von Jascheroff) is a German lad brought up in Saudi Arabia, an ordinary boy whose father (Udo Kier) admonishes him that he must 'become a man' before his 16th birthday (we're not sure what that entails...). Moving to Berlin, Jargo maintains his Arabian clothing until he encounters a similar aged German Turk Kamil (Oktay Ozdemir) and here begins his introduction into the world of juvenile cool (read delinquency). Kamil has a girlfriend Mona (Nora von Waldstatten) who catches Jargo's eye more than the ripe but wise Emilia (Josefine Preuss). As Jargo and Kamil bond, Jargo's father's image continues to admonish him that he must 'become a man' and Jargo's clouded psyche both imitates and rejects his father's history, leading to significant changes in Jargo's 'coming of age' and his relationship with his new found friends.

The script is flimsy and pointless and aside from some young actors who please the camera (Preuss and von Jascheroff), there really is very little to maintain interest for an hour and a half. Even the featurettes with conversations allowing Solrun to verbalize her film concept can't save this ordinary little movie. There are many more very fine little films about youths facing adulthood: this isn't one of them. Grady Harp

Maria Solrun has touched a nerve with the tale of a young boy's emigration from Saudi Arabia to the city of Berlin where global and social homogenization is in full force.

Resting uncomfortably close to the current plight between German and Turkish segregation currently in Berlin, Maria's 'Jargo' examines and compares the framework of cultural heritage through the context of the individuals that carry them out. We are left with a portrait of a young boy who is caught in a cross-fire of either upholding a tradition within a foreign landscape or shedding it for the new.

With a cast of unexpected talent, this film touches upon the most fragile aspects of cultural and personal identity. Solrun's 'Jargo' bravely portrays cultural assimilation as necessary to human survival yet also the link to ones gravest loss.

*Two thumbs up should be given to both Constantin von Jascheroff and Oktay Özdemir for their exceptional performance in these roles.