Definition of the criminal genre The last work of the German director Thomas Arslan is addressed to the topic of relationships between figures of the underworld. The author, as a true adherent of the basic principles of the “Berlin School”, unfolds before the viewer an accurate, verified to the smallest detail, formal representation of the gangster militant.
The measured action takes place in the urban landscape, cold high-rise buildings of Berlin. Focused characters and extreme detachment of the director, allows the viewer to feel the extra-emotional accomplishment on the screen, and to draw their own conclusions, the author's opinion is not imposed, but is a form of an adjective.
The film is not full of aesthetic elements, and especially dashing chases with crazy shooting. There is no rainbow empathy and existential-spiritual searches, everything that genre brethren sin. The so-called gangsters in appearance are similar to ordinary citizens, constantly remain in the shadow of their craft. For example, it will be much more difficult to establish an association between a plague mechanic and a hardened raider.
Maximum pragmatism and self-control, such qualities endowed with the main character Trojan. The person who has left the prison is instantly adapted to the environment. The search for money and work in its sequence is brought to automatism. An elegant solution to emerging problems looks quite realistic for the existing circumstances.
The structured actions of the Trojan determine the type of professional robber, without further words, abandoning the case if he is assigned an alcoholic and a drug addict. The goal, formulated in quick profit and amateurish approach, is a priori doomed to failure. But even in the clearest and most coherent plan, any accident can ruin all efforts.
Musical accompaniment is represented by urban sounds, occasionally the composer focuses on key points, and resorts to external effects.
Deliberate vitality and oppressive atmosphere, freely interspersed with the rationality of the author's interpretation. “In the shadows” well-formed work, although errors in modeling stressful moments, slightly spoiled the overall impression. Nevertheless, a talented supporter of the “Berlin School”, using successful fixation of dull-everyday images and fragmentary suspensation, wove a solid frame of the criminal genre, rejecting excess tinsel, and “snobbing Hollywood shalaam-balam”.
9 out of 10