A Coffee in Berlin (2012)

An aimless university dropout attempts to make sense of life as he spends one fateful day wandering the streets of Berlin.

Director:

Jan Ole Gerster

Writer:

Jan Ole Gerster (screenplay)

Stars:

Tom Schilling, Katharina Schüttler, Justus von Dohnányi

25 wins & 23 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Schilling	...	Niko Fischer
Katharina Schüttler	...	Elli
Justus von Dohnányi	...	Karl Speckenbach
Andreas Schröders	...	Psychologe
Katharina Hauck	...	Café-Shop Angestellte
Marc Hosemann	...	Matze
Friederike Kempter	...	Julika Hoffmann
Arnd Klawitter	...	Phillip Rauch
Inga Birkenfeld	...	Hanna
Ulrich Noethen	...	Walter Fischer
Leander Modersohn	...	Jörg Schneider
Martin Brambach	...	Kontrolleur Jörg
Rolf Peter Kahl	...	Kontrolleur Stefan (as RP Kahl)
Lis Böttner	...	Frau Baumann
Theo Trebs	...	Marcel

Storyline

This tragicomedy is a self-ironic portrait of a young man who drops out of university and ends up wandering the streets of the city he lives: Berlin. The film deals with the desire to participate in life and the difficulty to find one's place.

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Plot Keywords:

actors | 2010s | germany | german | berlin | 

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Taglines:

No job. No girl. No coffee.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Germany] Official site [Japan]

Country:

Germany

Language:

German English

Release Date:

13 June 2014 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Coffee in Berlin

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

EUR300,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,918, 15 June 2014

Gross USA:

$150,275

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,750,275

Company Credits

Production Co:

Schiwago Film, Chromosom Filmproduktion, Hessischer Rundfunk (HR)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jan Ole Gerster's debut was the unexpected box-office success in Germany 2012 with more than $2mio. It also won the German Film Award for best pictures, best script and best directing 2013.

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Quotes

Niko Fischer: Do you know what it's like... to have the feeling that all the people around you are honestly kind of weird? But when you think it over, then it becomes clear that the problem is with yourself.

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Connections

Referenced in Hard & Ugly (2017)

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Soundtracks

Oh Boy
Written and Produced by Konstantin Gropper
Performed by Get Well Soon

User Reviews

A terrific gem about urban youth, life, Germany and the absurdity of all of it

"Oh Boy" is a special movie and a very German one too. We follow the protagonist Niko Fischer, played by a superb Tom Schilling, through an entire day in vernal Berlin. This day is filled with several episodes in which director Jan-Ole Gerster manages to portrait the various aspects of life in modern Berlin - whether its the Kafkaesque bureaucracy one has to deal with on a daily basis or the never-ending struggle to find normality in the midst of hipsterdom and self-proclaimed avantgarde attitude which makes Berlin so popular amongst party people all over the world.

What is more, Gerster even succeeds to weave Germany's grim past into the story-line by reminding the viewer every now and then how pointless and redundant many aspects of our lives are in comparison with the unatoned horrors committed by Germans on their own turf and all over Europe.

Niko Fischer can be seen as the conscience of those of us who cannot help but deal with what it means to live in Germany and be a German on a daily basis. It might be even difficult to understand the movie in its wholeness for a foreigner as it is with literature by Hesse or Kafka, authors that largely contributed to this piece by making hilarious absurdity and tragedy confluent. The club toilet scene with Niko's schoolmate is key here and has almost Freudian dimensions.

Anyhow, I highly recommend watching this film, last but not least because I tremendously identify with it.