Aka Berlin Nobody. A solitary person is nothing. The group is everything. American social psychology university professor Ben Monroe (Eric Bana) wrote a nonfiction bestseller called The Science of Loneliness. A year after separating from his wife in California he’s a guest lecturer at an institution in Berlin where he’s working on a new book on the subject of The Power of Group Think. He and colleague Max (Stephan Kampwirth) are allowed first look at a ritual mass suicide by a presumed local cult through Max’s acquaintance with Nina (Sylvia Hoeks), who profiles dangerous criminals for the government. Each body has a single shell in its mouth. Ben’s sixteen-year old daughter Mazzy (Sadie Sink) is sent to join him for a semester as punishment. Because Ben is busy at the scene of the crime she has to make her own way to his home. Taking the subway from the airport to the city she immediately meets a cute local guy, Martin (Jonas Dassler). Orphaned Martin lives with his grandmother in a condemned building and spends his time with what he says to Mazzy is an ‘environmental NGO’ and when he takes her to a gathering she meets the charismatic leader Hilma (Sophie Rois) who takes to her straight away and gifts her with a shell necklace. She’s too naive to notice this looks very much like a death cult. Release fear, embrace love. Hilma calls her followers to discard worldly attachments so that Earth can purify and heal. Sacrifice is Redemption. is one of the catchphrases that attracts people – it’s even written in marker on a backpack in the subway. Martin is traumatised by the death of his grandmother and subsequently helps submissive cult member Lotte (Lara Feith) to commit suicide at a lake on the outskirts of the city where Nina previously said that last week’s body had no shell in their mouth and so wasn’t connected with the mass death. You’ve probably heard the siren’s call and don’t even know it. As Mazzy gets led into danger by Martin who unbeknownst to her stabs her attempted assailant, Ben similarly falls for bait dangled by Nina and wakes up in her bed, dreaming that his daughter is in trouble and finding out she never came home … We shape our intentions. We create what we mean. Adapted from Nicholas Hogg’s 2015 novel Tokyo by writer/director Jordan Scott (daughter of The Riddler himself, producing here) making her second feature (following 2009’s Cracks) the source material is transposed to Berlin. It’s been the setting of superlative film and TV thrillers over the past decade including Liam Neeson actioner Unknown and lately offering Berlin Station among others on the small screen. Untangle yourself from your parents. There’s a socio-philosophical basis for this that never quite gets under the skin of any of these big thinkers never mind linking it to the leadership cults that have distinguished Germany. Bana is plagued by dreams which are linked to Mazzy’s fate but turn out to be the incident that led to the disintegration of his marriage to her mother as well as serving as a preview of coming attractions. It’s about simple answers to big questions. Nina is much too sympathetic to the rationale for cult-ish behaviour: it’s not a hook if you truly believe it, she muses. Her role and the police procedural element are dangling too – raising questions later about what Max might have to do with how things play out. Characters aren’t established sufficiently to figure this plotline. Tension-free storytelling lacking key dramatic developments (probably at least ten minutes’ more are needed) coupled with a generative location inadequately exploited combine to minimise the impact of the narrative’s elements. If you join our family you’ll never be alone again. The twist when it comes actually creates a plot hole retrospectively – which renders a lot of the story problematic (did Nina find out from Max about Mazzy’s trip before she met Ben?). There is less to this than meets the eye despite the seductive appearance and the wicked fairy tale allusions. Germans: cult leaders – you know what to do kids. Just Say No. You will never be alone again
mondomovies 