BERLIN & BEYOND Mar. 2024

[Chris Knipp]

CHARLY HÜBNER: SOPHIA, DEATH AND ME/SOPHIA, DER TOD UND ICH (2023)


DIMITRI SCHAAD, MARC HOSEMANN, AND ANNA MARIA MüHE IN SOPHIA, DEATH AND ME[/U]

Complications when Death comes calling, and gets delayed

After a restless night, Reiner (Dimitrij Schaad), a thirty-something caregiver who lives alone, is surprised by Morten de Sarg (Marc Hosemann), his own death sent down from on high to take him away, and no stalling. But Rainer can't believe it, the three-minute time limit passes, and Morten lingers on for the moment useless, awaiting further orders one supposes, with Rainer still alive. Soon after, Sophia (Anna Maria Mühe), Rainer's ex, comes to take him to visit his mother Lore (Johanna Gastdorf) for her birthday. From now on Morten, Rainer's death, must stay within 300 meters at all times, or Sophia will die, because they have inadvertently touched, and Morten must not let Rainer out of his sight.

Later the four of them, Rainer, Sophia, his mother, and his death, go north on a road trip to see Reiner's seven-year-old son Johnny (Mateo Kanngießer), whom he hasn't seen for a long time, though he sends him a postcard every day with a cartoon drawing and a P.s. at the end: "Johnny be good." And this becomes a road picture about family reunion and love's renewal.

Forces from above send a tougher, grimmer archangel, Mork Mortius (Carlo Ljubek) to deliver Rainer's death. But Morten won't have his power usurped, and a battle of the titans (more petty than godly) occurs - thus giving Rainer another reprieve. This debut feature by Charly Hubner, which is based on a novel by musician Thees Uhlmann, in one way makes one think of Hollywood films of the thirties and forties, and on the other hand with its deadpan humor and confidently drab surroundings - perhaps the Northern German too - seems the most German thing included in this year's San Francisco Berlin & Beyond festival. And yet the film also makes one think a little of the Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki. Anyway, the humor is presumably subtly deadpan, with a risk of things being lost in translation sometimes.

The film lacks Aki Kaurismäki's sweet sentimentality, except that when the odd foursome stop at a rural hotel whose tall, deadpan proprietor is none other than director Charly Hübner, Sophia and Rainer feel a reawakening of their former flame and take the honeymoon suite for some loving, while Rainer's still around.

The northern German dialect throughout reportedly adds dry humor to the situation comedy and wordplay, while the songs by Swiss duo Steiner & Madlaina with their harmonious voices and rich Western guitar sound round off the road movie.

A part of the humorous ultimate paraphernalia is Erzengel Michaela (Lina Beckmann) who assigns other like endowed creatures to announce their deaths to people; and, above her, a big blowsy Harold Bloom type known as G. (Josef Ostendorf). They are on earth for a while too: G. insists he could drive the car, because he can do anything, but he just doesn't want to. The memory that will linger is the brief encounter with the boy Johnny - though it is kept teasingly vague whether they do meet or Rainer just imagines over and over how they will and what he will say. The gesture of the daily postcards is especially touching in this era of snapchat and test messages.

Sophia, Death and Me/Sophia, der Tod und ich, 98 mins., debuted in Germany Aug. 31, 2023. Screened for this review as part of the 28th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival, presented by the Goethe-Institut San Francisco, will run April 18-20, 2024 at the historic Roxie Theater in San Francisco's Mission District, and April 21-22, 2024 at Rialto Cinemas Elmwood in Berkeley. Showtime
Saturday,
April 20, 2024
9:00 PM
Roxie, San Francisco