"Bornholmer Straße" is a German movie from 2014, so this one has its 3rd anniversary this year. It is a small screen release that runs for slightly under 90 minutes. The director is Christian Schwochow and the script actually comes from his parents Heide and Rainer (I think) who adapted the book by Gerhard Haase-Hindenberg. The film plays at the very same time like the more known "Herr Lehmann" for example, namely in the crucial hours of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The perspective here is from the people working right at the border in East Germany, those who have to make sure that nobody passes the border without permission to do so, which of course turns into an impossible challenge when Schabowski announces that everybody can leave immediately if they want to. So yeah, honestly this subject has been done so many times in German movies, but they still make new ones, which just shows how important it is. And if they turn out as fine as this one here, I am not mad about it at all. It's not too easy to take the film seriously from a dramatic perspective and the overacting and general "overthetopness" in some situations does not help at all, but the comedy moments are pretty good and the are also the main reason why I give this one a thumbs-up.
The cast is also really good for a German television movie: Hübner, Peschel, Matthes, Bock, Lau, Bauer, Werner and others belong to the German acting elite and have been there for quite a while. That's why the outcome is pretty convincing. I would not say that the film makes an emotional impact like "Lives of Others" for example or that it is a great watch by any means, but you don't really see comedies about the GDR too often and when you do, then admittedly they are sometimes pretty bad or mediocre. This one here is slightly above-average and everybody who likes German movies or movies about German history can certainly give it a go. I personally found it rewarding and like I already said, it is relatively short which is a good thing as well as, this way, it rarely drags and stays pretty essential from start to finish. Thumbs up.
The cast is also really good for a German television movie: Hübner, Peschel, Matthes, Bock, Lau, Bauer, Werner and others belong to the German acting elite and have been there for quite a while. That's why the outcome is pretty convincing. I would not say that the film makes an emotional impact like "Lives of Others" for example or that it is a great watch by any means, but you don't really see comedies about the GDR too often and when you do, then admittedly they are sometimes pretty bad or mediocre. This one here is slightly above-average and everybody who likes German movies or movies about German history can certainly give it a go. I personally found it rewarding and like I already said, it is relatively short which is a good thing as well as, this way, it rarely drags and stays pretty essential from start to finish. Thumbs up.