Gerald Wright's Movie Coverage
Nothing Else Matters Movie Review
NOTHING ELSE MATTERS (Was am ende zahit)
Directed by: Julia von Heinz
Running time: 100 minutes
German Language with English subtitles
Genre: Drama Feature
Distributor: Missing Films (Berlin, Germany)
Summary Review:
In this emotional and often disturbing coming of age narrative, Julia von Heinz makes her debut feature film as a writer and director. Young runaways is a global problem plaguing every society. In this story, 15 year old Carla (Paula Kalenberg) has aspirations of becoming a fashion designer. She comes from a comfortable lifestyle; however, she runs away from home (Berlin) to venture off to Lyons, France to a fashion institute.
Unfortunately, while boarding the train to France a thief makes off with all her belongings and savings. Without money she is stranded, but luckily comes across a street girl named Lucie (Marie-Luise Schramm) who shows her the ropes on the street. Carla is without a place to live and is forced to accept a place to stay for a night with a suave drug hustler Rico (Vinzenz Kiefer). The sleep-over with Rico is a "one night stand". Rico has the street kids working for him restoring a boat as a floating gambling casino. He employs Carla to help Lucie on this project.
The two young women quickly bond, but as a result of Carla's one night lovemaking with Rico she finds herself pregnant. Carla can't ask her parents for help or go to a doctor, because her parents will find her. The two girls come up with the plan of Carla posing as Lucie and Lucie posing as Carla to fool the German welfare system to receive medical care. She also decides she will give her baby to Lucie so she can go to France and start her career in fashion at Lyons. They work hard at the construction site and save enough money to rent an apartment along with Lucie's drug addicted brother Michael (Benjamin Kramme). During this nine months of pregnancy, a collage of calamities occur which adds to the dramatic plot that writer/director Julia von Heinz craftes so well.
Until the child's birth, both girls hide in an apartment while Michael shares the secret. Once the birth of the baby girl comes along, Carla has a change of mind and wants to keep her child. As tensions escalate on whether Carla is a good mother and whether Lucie would be a better mother, the two mothers come together in a relationship and make responsible decisions. Not to be a spoiler, but the final scenes prove to be very rewarding.
As a coming of age film, this movie shows the talents of brilliant young actors characterizing their coping with different concepts of life.
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