Berlin Alexanderplatz

The whole thing, all three hours of it, went nowhere in particular. There are filmmakers who can put together a compelling 180 minute character study, but Qurbani doesn't appear to be one of them.

Most of what made Döblin's novel so interesting is absent here. The updated setting, with its focus on refugee identiy and experience, opens up a world of possibility that the film never really explores in great depth - though it really wants you to think it has. It's stylish, sure, but even that begins to grate fairly quickly. The whispered, whinging voice-over, reminding us every so often what we're supposed to be feeling, is overused and begins to border on the ridiculous.

All in all, 4 stars for some good camerawork and solid performances. Unfortunately, nothing else delivered.

Migration. Refugees. Asylum seekers. Familiar terms. Eventually also a number of films about the lives of these people who choose to flee in the hope of finding a better life.

This ambitious, long German film is thus an important contribution in shedding light on the lives of some of these people. A film with a message, which in turn can give us viewers new insight.

However, I must write that this film turned out to be completely different from what I had thought beforehand. It starts with an escape. In the first part, it shows the incredible vulnerability many of these people experience. Not a passport. Not rights. Vulnerable to being exploited, which this main character also experiences to a great extent.

Later in the film, a shift occurs. The main character survives by getting involved in criminal activities and with some scary criminals who have major consequences for him. The film then turns into a kind of crime/action film.

This movie is good. It could have been somewhat shorter, but is still worth watching. Welket Bungué as the protagonist Francis plays convincingly. German shooting star Albrecht Schuch is uncannily good as the psychopathic and brutal Reinhold. The film is peppered with many exciting personalities, also with skilled actors who give convincing life to these characters.

A minus from me at the end: there is a narrator's voice that we can regularly hear in the film to describe Francis' thoughts and actions. Totally unnecessary. The film is so clear and insightful, that we could have let go of this Minnie Mouse voice that keeps popping up.

Amazing job of bringing this 1920s story into 2020 to depict modern conflicts which, after all, are not so different from 100 years ago. Very well directed and beautifully shot to portray underground life and its unusual relationships. Maybe a nuance too long but great to watch. Impressingly well played by the Reinhold character.

This film had everything to work. It's loosely based on a good novel, the initial premise sounds good, a refugee looking for redemption is corrupted by his environment in Berlin, the cinematography is amazing (not often the case in German cinema), editing is good, I loved the sets too. Regarding the acting, there were some great moments but it looked inconsistent, in the end I believe the actors did a great job with the poor screenplay provided to them. The story just doesn't work. The relationships between characters are not credibel, they are born out of nowhere, out of nothing, there is no tension there, there is no development in those relationships and it made me not understand nor care about them (all the relationships of the main character, they make no sense to me). Also that villain, it was actually a well written psycopath, but at some point I bet someone fell in love with the cool character they were writing and he started taking way too much space on the story. In the end it's almost a good movie, but it doesn't really reach that level.

The story follows the rise and fall of Francis (Welket Bungué), a refugee who tries to be a good man while earning a living in a wealthy country suppressing the options to do so. He is soon approached by a drug dealer (Albrecht Schuch) offering what seems to be a way out of his misery. Thus, the tragedy unfolds. Burhan Qurbani's handwriting as a director has significantly improved over the course of his now three feature-length films. And now he has delivered a masterpiece. The film manages to combine elements of hyper-realism with poetic moments, strengthening each other's impact. The music is sometimes subtle, sometimes loud, and always on point. The actors' delivery is gripping and powerful. The story itself is an adaptation of Döblin's masterpiece novel of the same name. It is fittingly transferred into current day Berlin, and - while staying true to the novel's intent - it is told in a far more concise manner to suit its format. I actually hate movies longer than 100 minutes, but due to its separation into 5 chapters Qurbani somehow managed to not annoy or bore me for a second.