Someone Like Me (2012)

It is love at first sight between Kari and Annemarie but their love is not without complications. They come from opposite sides of the society and Annemaries father have other, more wealthy and handsome, husbands in plan for her.

Director:

Xavier Koller

Writer:

Xavier Koller

Stars:

Hanspeter Müller, Nils Althaus, Carla Juri

1 win & 5 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Hanspeter Müller	...	Dällebach Kari (as Hanspeter Müller-Drossaart)
Nils Althaus	...	Junger Kari
Carla Juri	...	Annemarie Geiser
Bruno Cathomas	...	Erwin Geiser
Julika Jenkins	...	Hannelore Geiser
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Daniel Bill	...	Kunde Coiffeursalon
Margherita Coldesina	...	Carla
Iréna Flury	...	Sophie
Christoph Gaugler	...	Friedrich Dällebach
Markus Gerber	...	Jonathan Aebi
Barbara Grimm	...	Karis Schwester
Fabienne Hadorn	...	Stini
Nina Iseli	...	Margaretha Dällebach
Nina Mariel Kohler	...	Barbara
Kamil Krejcí	...	Bademeister

Storyline

Late 1800's - a small barber shop in Bern, the capital of Switzerland. Its owner is the well-known city character "Dällebach Kari". His barber shop is always crowded - not because Kari shaves better than the other barbers but because he entertains his costumers in such a brilliant way that they do not mind waiting a few hours and watching him soap others. Born in a poor farming family, Kari is small and fragile as well as having a harelip. The doctor who delivers Kari does not give the newborn much a chance of survival. He says to the poor father - "with so many proper mouths to feed - do you really need a runt as well?" Despite this - or because of this Kari's mother Marghareta feeds him like a bird that has fallen from the nest. He not only survives - he blossoms into a cheerful young man who believes in the beauty of life. Aged 20 Kari meets the gentle and beautiful Annemarie. It is love at first sight. Kari is thunderstruck. While other girls turned away from Kari - Annemarie is ...

---

Plot Keywords:

love | 

---

Genres:

Drama

---

User Reviews

Touching, heartfelt, and beautifully acted

Happened to catch this on a plane ride, and I'm so glad I did.

This is a small, simple movie about a boy, Kari, born with a cleft lip and his life of trying to deal with this defect and achieve happiness in spite of it. We are given the story in little bits, not in chronological order, but after a while one starts to piece things together readily enough. We see him at birth, as a young boy, as a 20-something year old young man, and then again as a mature older man. The main story revolved around his attempts to court a beautiful young girl who takes an interest in him, but her family of course is not quite as accepting of his defects and simple upbringing.

The story is set around the late 1800s in Switzerland, and is presented in German. The individual vignettes of life in the rural and then urban settings are quite charming, though not always pleasant or pretty.

But the strength of this movie is in its story and the three lead actors who do a fantastic job portraying the two main characters (because we see Kari as both a young man and an older man). It's a story about someone who tries to overcome the bad hand that fate has dealt him, is not entirely successful, and yet in later years can look back on that episode with mingled bittersweet feelings, without anger towards his fellow human beings but as a very well-adjusted person who is dearly loved by his circle of intimates. We can read all their internal emotions in their facial expressions, glances, etc.

A small but I think important subplot was the relationship between Kari and his mother, who nursed him to health as an infant and loved him dearly, a love reciprocated by Kari. We see how this first relationship set the stage for his later attempts to find love as a mature young man.

It's a typically anti-Hollywood movie: with depth, sensitivity, creativity, and a strong sense of historical verisimilitude, all artfully and skillfully shot and on a minimal budget. If you can live with subtitles, this is a very rewarding movie to watch. Even better if you have a bit of an ear for German dialects, as the peculiarities of Swiss German come across repeatedly and are quite entertaining. Some may find the story line a bit predictable, but the artistic way in which we are told the story--part in flashback, part in real time, not in a direct linear fashion--more than makes up for that.

Details

Official Sites:

Director's official site Production's official site

Country:

Switzerland

Language:

Swiss German

Release Date:

1 March 2012 (Switzerland)

Also Known As:

Someone Like Me

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Color:

Color