"The Bra" is a co-production between Germany and Azerbaijan and the latter is where the film plays. Actually, the location is not too surprising taking into account that writer and director Veit Helmer, who turned 50 the years this was made, has worked on many movies long and short with an Eastern European background during his prolific career. And most of the actors you will see during these 1.5 hours here are some that Helmer has cast in other films as well in the past. I am of course talking mostly about Lavant and Khamatova, not sure about lead actor Manojlovic. But if he has not, then he should cast him again because the latter really carried the film nicely and no words were needed. Another approach where it is not the first time that Helmer takes it. But it makes for something different in a pretty interesting way. And to be really precise it needs to be said that we do hear humans here. We hear them crying, laughing, making sounds, screaming, even saying a name here and there when a character is called by another. But that's it. Other than that, the film relies completely on sound effects and the sound track of course too and both fields were handled with precision and attention to detail. If there was one thing I did not like too much about this approach, then it would be the noises some of the women make at times, which seemed a bit too quirky for my taste here and there. But these are not bad either and overall this idea adds great charm too the film. Now as for the story, we have an old train driver who is fairly lonely and has a tendency to get into contact with people by getting their stuff that gets stuck on his locomotive and bringing it back to them. This especially happens after the young boy runs along the rails telling everybody to make space and I kinda like this recurring theme. Now everything changes for the old man when one day he finds a bra on his train. After his sidekick (Lavant) plays a bit around with that, we find out quickly how serious a matter it is for our protagonist. So he goes from one apartment and house to the next in hope of finding the one it belongs to. I kept wondering he knew where it hung outside or did he forget, so why didn't he remember, probably didn't see it. Anyway, the problem with him going to all these women is not only that there are way too many, but also that the husbands are usually not amused if they see him. The result is a wild chase on more than one occasion and the sound one of the husbands makes was kinda funny in a comical way.
But there are also more serious moments. One would be when we have the man at the lake when he is retired and wants to catch some fish, but is bullied by the other men there and their sons, one annoying son in particular and this scene shows us that our "hero" really does not fit in with them without kids on his own. Sadly, he is not the strongest one physically either, so his marriage proposal to a woman who likes him gets rejected by her mother. So he goes on the search afterwards for the one the bra belongs to. And honestly I was surprised how friendly most women reacted and did not think he was a creep too, perhaps because some of them found the man also interesting and hoped to get in a relationship with him. But if the bra won't fit, then no luck for the girls, some of them attractive, others not so much, but one young lady really stunning in fact that he would never have met if he did not follow the old lady after he opened that bra selling shop as a disguise to find the right one. Really surprising he did not react to the girl's interest and the small breast size cannot just have been the only reason. I think by that point he was already somewhat in love with the one he was looking for, almost like an obsession. Oh yeah, another serious scene is when near the end, the husbands catch up to him and tie him to the rails, but the young boy I mentioned earlier has become a friend at that point and maybe he will go fishing with him someday. For now, he helped him save his life and untie his chains, so that the train would not roll over him and kill him. This newly-found friendship also had the protagonist care less about the woman he's been looking for. I still think it was a bit unrealistic that int he end he did not care at all who may live behind this door, even if she was not home at that point anyway probably, but still a bit more feel-good ending as realistic that eventually had me go for the lower rating. I considered 4 out of 5 stars for a while because it was a really funny movie at times also with how politically incorrect it was. I am sure some snowflakes and hardcore liberal feminists will not be able to enjoy the film or like the main character with him climbing up in the woman's bedroom (well it was the boy's idea admittedly) or how he tricks all the woman with his cancer research studio at the end into showing him their breasts. Or simply for the fact that also as a hetero male, you had no reason to be embarrassed for staring at each and every single female character's breasts to see if it could fit. And despite knowing it wouldn't, maybe stare for a little longer still. So overall, thanks to Heimer and Manojlovic, this was quite a fun watch and I recommend checking the film out. The good thing is also you won't need any subtitles no matter where you are from and which languages you speak for reasons I mentioned earlier. And by the way, there are also some truly mesmerizing video recordings and cinematography moments included in these 90 minutes, like the shots of the mountains, but others too. Maybe my favorite film from the director at this point. I recommend checking it out.
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