"Oi! Warning," by remarkably talented twin brothers Dominik and Benjamin Reding, takes a dispassionate but by no means passionless look at the German skinhead scene.
Shot in moody, expressionistic black and white, the film is moving through the festival circuit and received its first U.S. showing at Sundance. Domestic distribution opportunities for a black-and-white German film aren't great, even with such an explosive topic. Certain to create controversy wherever it plays, "Oi! Warning" looks like a better bet for cable, where spirited indie films can do well.
The Redings exhibit a savvy filmmaking style where almost dreamy imagery contrasts smartly with rough, violent content. Their camera observes this subculture without editorializing. They realize that a steady gaze will be enough to help viewers come to their own conclusions about this nihilistic European youth movement.
The film follows the journey of 17-year-old Janosch (Sascha Backhaus) as he enters the skinhead world. Kicked out of school, he takes off from home, abandoning his mother and girlfriend, to hook up with Koma (Simon Goerts), an older chum, in Dortmund. Koma, a self-described "100% pure skinhead," goes in for kick-boxing, beer drinking and brawling. Even a pregnant girlfriend, Sandra (Sandra Borgmann), can't domesticate him.
Admiring Koma's masculine bravado, Janosch adopts much of the skinhead lifestyle. But his discontent continues. Then, while getting a tattoo from a punk named Zottel (Jens Veith), he immediately feels comfortable with Zottel's devil-may-care, stoned, homoerotic existence.
The word "Oi" describes a kind of party music and dancing, somewhat reminiscent of slam dancing, that is central to the skinhead lifestyle. These are lives built around considerable violence even in their merrymaking. But the component that is missing most glaringly from the Redings' portrait of skinhead culture is the skinheads' contempt for foreigners and Jews.
The brothers appear to have gone out of their way to show skinhead rituals in as sympathetic a light as possible. Before its final Sundance screening, the brothers said their film was about tolerance. But one wonders if this tolerance should extend to tolerating and ignoring intolerance.
The Redings take a semidocumentary approach to their subject and employ professional actors and non-pros who, in their words, "lived a life which was close to the life of our characters in the script." The result is a disturbing portrait of the angry fringes of German society. But what we don't fully understand are the reasons for that anger in the first place.
OI! WARNING
Schlammtaucher Film
Credits: Producer-director-writers: Dominik Reding, Benjamin Reding; Director of photography: Axel Henschel; Production designer: Sandra Linde; Music: Michael Herboldt; Costumes: Christine Splett; Editor: Margot Neubert-Maric. Cast: Janosch: Sascha Backhaus; Koma: Simon Goerts; Sandra: Sandra Borgmann; Zottel: Jens Veith; Blanca: Britta Dirks. No MPAA rating. Black and white/stereo. Running time -- 89 minutes.
Shot in moody, expressionistic black and white, the film is moving through the festival circuit and received its first U.S. showing at Sundance. Domestic distribution opportunities for a black-and-white German film aren't great, even with such an explosive topic. Certain to create controversy wherever it plays, "Oi! Warning" looks like a better bet for cable, where spirited indie films can do well.
The Redings exhibit a savvy filmmaking style where almost dreamy imagery contrasts smartly with rough, violent content. Their camera observes this subculture without editorializing. They realize that a steady gaze will be enough to help viewers come to their own conclusions about this nihilistic European youth movement.
The film follows the journey of 17-year-old Janosch (Sascha Backhaus) as he enters the skinhead world. Kicked out of school, he takes off from home, abandoning his mother and girlfriend, to hook up with Koma (Simon Goerts), an older chum, in Dortmund. Koma, a self-described "100% pure skinhead," goes in for kick-boxing, beer drinking and brawling. Even a pregnant girlfriend, Sandra (Sandra Borgmann), can't domesticate him.
Admiring Koma's masculine bravado, Janosch adopts much of the skinhead lifestyle. But his discontent continues. Then, while getting a tattoo from a punk named Zottel (Jens Veith), he immediately feels comfortable with Zottel's devil-may-care, stoned, homoerotic existence.
The word "Oi" describes a kind of party music and dancing, somewhat reminiscent of slam dancing, that is central to the skinhead lifestyle. These are lives built around considerable violence even in their merrymaking. But the component that is missing most glaringly from the Redings' portrait of skinhead culture is the skinheads' contempt for foreigners and Jews.
The brothers appear to have gone out of their way to show skinhead rituals in as sympathetic a light as possible. Before its final Sundance screening, the brothers said their film was about tolerance. But one wonders if this tolerance should extend to tolerating and ignoring intolerance.
The Redings take a semidocumentary approach to their subject and employ professional actors and non-pros who, in their words, "lived a life which was close to the life of our characters in the script." The result is a disturbing portrait of the angry fringes of German society. But what we don't fully understand are the reasons for that anger in the first place.
OI! WARNING
Schlammtaucher Film
Credits: Producer-director-writers: Dominik Reding, Benjamin Reding; Director of photography: Axel Henschel; Production designer: Sandra Linde; Music: Michael Herboldt; Costumes: Christine Splett; Editor: Margot Neubert-Maric. Cast: Janosch: Sascha Backhaus; Koma: Simon Goerts; Sandra: Sandra Borgmann; Zottel: Jens Veith; Blanca: Britta Dirks. No MPAA rating. Black and white/stereo. Running time -- 89 minutes.
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