Monday, 30 October 2017

West

(Christian Schwochow/2013/Germany)

A middling drama about a single mother who defects to West Berlin in the 70’s with her son and gets detained in refugee accommodation and subjected to questioning about her sons father who is suspected of being a spy. Interesting to note the conditions of detainment compared to today’s refugee camps and hard to sympathise with those in the film given the relative luxury. A good performance in the main role by Jördis Triebel but even though the story hits the right notes about their plight, the eventual theme of not judging a book by its cover washes out into the final scenes with a somewhat weak sentimentality rather than a resonant emotional twang. Not a bad film but nothing extraordinary either.

(2.5/5)

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