Opening 10 Jul 2008
Directed by:
Pepe Planitzer
Writing credits:
Oliver Bukowski, Pepe Planitzer
Principal actors:
Eberhard Kirchberg, Milan Peschel, Marie Grubel, Simone Frost, Christina Grosse
Three losers meet, interact, suffer, go separate ways, rejoin and begin a fulfilling life together. One is Hagen (Eberhard Kirchberg), who is mentally retarded but exceptionally strong. He is sent to live with his uncle, but instead meets Dohmühl (Milan Peschel), whose truck has stalled. Hagen pushes him all the way home and Dohmühl, a bankrupt alcoholic with a good heart, gratefully but reluctantly allows him to stay. Ina (Marie Gruber) has returned to her apartment upstairs after being released from prison. Possibly she murdered an abusive spouse, but prison did not change her mind about mean husbands. Dohmühl loves Ina, but she refuses his advances. This is kind of a low-key German version of Rain Man or Elling by Pepe Planitzer from Berlin. The title AlleAlle reflects Hagen’s limited vocabulary and difficulty expressing himself. We know that all will be well when Hagen flushes his pet mouse down the toilet in a depressed moment of being “over” or “finished” or “finito” or “alle” and lo and behold the mouse climbs up out of the sewer into freedom, a grand signal that the lives of these three can only get better. And it does. (Becky Tan)
