DVD Scherbenpark

"Scherbenpark" (a park full of broken pieces of glass) features one of the most impressive performances by a younger actress I've seen this year and even if Jasna Fritzi Bauer was already roughly 6 years older than her character when this was filmed, it's quite an impressive performance. No surprise she has gotten some awards recognition already and more will inevitably follow. She plays a 17-year-old always stuck between rebellion and adjustment to get the most out of life for her 2 siblings and herself. She lives in Stuttgart, a city in the south of Germany, always wears elastic waist trousers and is full of anger about her mother being killed for no real reason by her former partner, but at the same time creative as she tries to deal with the situation by putting her emotions down on paper. One day as quite the coincidence, she meets another former partner of her mother (played by Ulrich Noethen and everybody who knows him knows he's never bad) who offers her her help and after another very rough day she decides to move in with him and his son. There she experiences many moments that are completely new to her, like first love (if you can really talk about love in these rough surroundings) or her rock-hard facade slowly crumbling.

For the most part, the film is well-written and Sascha's interactions with the people in her life are the heart and soul of the movie besides Bauer's performance. You could certainly say that the film balances on top for the whole slightly over 90 minutes and if a film does so, then it's really difficult to avoid it from getting over the top occasionally. There is one scene where Sascha complains and shouts in a truly obscene manner. Yes, she is a tough girl, but I personally felt that did not suit her character at all this very moment and I had to cringe a little bit. The other one was the intimate scene between her and Noethen's character. Even if it is dissolved quickly, I share a bit of a hate-love for it. I'm not sure if it was so valuable to the story that it was worth building up with the boy's lung attack and hospital stay, so the two would be alone in the house. On the other hand, I like it very much from the perspective that Sascha does not have any real friends and is obviously extremely insecure. She obviously is at 17 years old even if she tries not to show. Consequently she struggles with seeing a difference between attraction and affection and this was illustrated very nicely this way. You have to decide for yourself what you think about that scene. It's obviously one of the most controversial from the whole movie and you'll either love or hate it.

All in all it's a pretty good movie that I would certainly recommend. It has lots of drama moments (for example the escalation in the subway station near the end), but here and there it will also put a smile on your lips. It's no obvious comedy of course, but it serves nicely as a bit of comedic relief presented mostly by witty writing of the dialogs. The emotional highlight of the film was the letter from the main character's father near the end, which made me tear up a bit, and as the film ends with a consequence directly resulting from said letter, I think they found a pretty good way to close the movie. There's no denying Bettina Blümner's first feature film for the big screen is a success and if you like films with the focus on strong young women like for example Alina Levshin on "Kriegerin", you will certainly like "Scherbenpark".