Das Lied in mir

I have been going to the Audi festival of German Films for a few years now and i was able to catch this film in this years run of the fest, here in Melbourne.

I wont touch on the plot too much as it can be found in the full summary on the main page of the film. What i will say is yes the base story has been done many times, and even with that said this is still uniquely brilliant. Why? well here why i think so.... The movies director Florian Micoud Cossen who also wrote the movie with Elena von Saucken, clearly researched extensively for the writing and making of this film they captured the diverse personalities of buenos Aires city, Argentinians perfectly from the hotel desk clerk to the kiosk owner to the hard to deal with lazy woman police officer, to the talkative joking police man and family culture. This movie made a lot of us laugh in the screening as some of the things said in Spanish were so spot on as to what an Argentinian would say to family or even to a cute girl tourist you would meet at a cafe or hostel. Even a popular kids character Topo Gigio in toy form makes an appearance.

The acting is spot on and real the main character played by Jessica Schwarz is excellent, her character is not a naive character which is a trait found in actresses that have been cast in similar roles in other movies. Her character is very strong willed and independent. The acting is flawless by all in this movie it feels and looks natural not forced in any way.

This is not a fancy polished Hollywood style movie in fact from what a spokesperson said before the movie its the directors debut and from what i saw i will be keeping my eye open for further films from the director and the acting cast. This movie really leaves you thinking and as someone who knows a lot about south American and European history, one cant help but see that sometimes their are no happy endings in the lives of those affected by atrocities of political nature we can only embrace the future with hope and keep going forward no matter were we are from.

I'm watching as many German language films as I can and this one has the bonus of including a lot of Spanish (my third language). From a learning perspective as opposed to purely entertainment, this is definitely one to watch as it has some great acting and some wonderful scenery.

Unfortunately, that's about it. The premise is fascinating and I was really looking forward to watching it but after the first fifteen to twenty minutes, it became clear that the story wasn't going to go anywhere.

The "twist" was predictable so this meant that there were no surprises and ultimately the actors didn't have anything to resolve because nothing really happened.

It seems like they had a great idea but just didn't develop it very well. As a whole, the film felt very small.

6/10

The basic plot of Das Lied in mir (man/woman finds out he/she was adopted) has been done and redone a thousand times and the first half hour of the film does little to convince the viewer it is going to be any different. Most situations are predictable and the policeman subplot is hard to believe. But as the film progresses newcomer director Florian Cossen shows absolute control of the story, with subtle plot changes and charismatic characters, not to mention the spectacular photography and music. It really grows on you.

Having seen my fair share of German movies in the last years I was also pleased in finding "new" faces in the cast - also excellent in the Argentinian side.