"Bukarest Fleisch" is a German television film from 2007, so it will have its 10th anniversary next year. The writer and director was Andy Fetscher and this is his first long movie. He was still in his 20s here and worked on short films before, including a project named "Bukarest Fisch". But back to this one here. The main character is played by Friederike Kempter and she is also the only cast member that you could call (close to) famous because of her work in "Oh Boy" and the "Tatort" series (Münster). But this is an entirely different genre. It starts off as a thriller, but quickly turns too horror, which is also when this movie gets considerably worse. Quite a shame actually as the premise about a young woman traveling to Romania to find out what exactly happened to her family could have been turned into a tense and edge-of-seat thriller.
But it turned out no such thing. It's probably still an okay outcome for a filmmaker of Fetscher's age, but by general standards it does not hold up and the quality is not good enough. This is possibly due to the film always stuck between gore and thriller and the result is that it does not really elaborate convincingly in any of the two areas. I think the acting here was not really the problem. Yes there was a hammy scene here and there, but I think Kepter (and Iacob) did a good job overall, especially Kempter. Also, sexuality plays a role here. One of them is for men who like blondes, one for those who prefer brunettes. I am certainly more of the latter, but I cannot deny that I really adored Kempter's looks here. She was completely stunning and it helps the film from the visual side that she is in almost every scene. The lesbian action at the end came out of nowhere and felt so random, but I still have to say thank you for it. But this scene alone is not enough to check out the entire film for almost 90 minutes. It may have been aspiring sometimes, but it was just not well-crafted enough to be taken seriously, which resulted in the opposite, namely this film looking ridiculous at times. I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
But it turned out no such thing. It's probably still an okay outcome for a filmmaker of Fetscher's age, but by general standards it does not hold up and the quality is not good enough. This is possibly due to the film always stuck between gore and thriller and the result is that it does not really elaborate convincingly in any of the two areas. I think the acting here was not really the problem. Yes there was a hammy scene here and there, but I think Kepter (and Iacob) did a good job overall, especially Kempter. Also, sexuality plays a role here. One of them is for men who like blondes, one for those who prefer brunettes. I am certainly more of the latter, but I cannot deny that I really adored Kempter's looks here. She was completely stunning and it helps the film from the visual side that she is in almost every scene. The lesbian action at the end came out of nowhere and felt so random, but I still have to say thank you for it. But this scene alone is not enough to check out the entire film for almost 90 minutes. It may have been aspiring sometimes, but it was just not well-crafted enough to be taken seriously, which resulted in the opposite, namely this film looking ridiculous at times. I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.