A Summer Mail Dream - DVD

Film: Bruno (Fabian Krüger) loves his noble and orderly lifestyle. Classical music, his beautiful girlfriend, a good coffee, the expert for historical stamps knows how to enjoy his life. Only his neighbour Sandra (Frölein Da Capo), owner of Bruno's regular café, is a real nuisance for the bon vivant. Especially her singing exercises every evening regularly drive him crazy. But Sandra, of all people, seems to be the solution to an unusual problem that is suddenly haunting Bruno: every morning he wakes up to find sand in his bed. Day by day it becomes more and more sand, which apparently comes from himself. And the more sand Benno loses, the lighter he becomes. He knows he must get to the bottom of the mystery before he dissolves completely into sand. And the erotic dreams he has of himself and Sandra just have to be an important clue there.

With Ein Sommersandtraum, director Peter Luise has succeeded in making what must be one of the most whimsical, yet beautiful romantic comedies of the year. With a lot of imagination, a good pinch of black humor and, at least in the original Swiss German version, refreshingly biting dialogue, Luise has created a literally enchanting fairy tale for adults. The sandy version of Inception, however, lives not only from its original basic idea and the many very funny ideas, but also from the good chemistry between the two main actors. Theatre actor Fabian Krüger delivers a wonderfully affected but at the same time somehow charming performance as the arrogant Sandman. And Irene Brügger, who has been successfully touring her home country as the one-woman orchestra Frölein Da Capo since 2006, makes a very likeable feature film debut here.

A summer sand dream gives itself over to its quirky idea with complete abandon. Peter Luise, who also wrote the screenplay, doesn't even try to explain the dreamlike events. Rather, he takes the audience very playfully into this love story of a different kind and thereby shows how big the difference between what you have and what you secretly really want can be and that you should listen to your dreams to become really happy.

Who appreciates humor of a more whimsical kind and is looking for very special love stories beyond all the usual clichés, should definitely indulge in this fairy tale summer sand dream. Finally once again a good proof that not only cheese comes from Switzerland! Absolutely recommendable!

Picture + Sound: The picture seems dreamy in the truest sense of the word. In many scenes, especially the edges seem strikingly blurred, but this can definitely be seen as a deliberately used stylistic device, as this underlines the dreamlike character of the story. But even otherwise, the sharpness level could be a bit better overall. Colors are also in tune with the story, with sandy hues often dominating the picture. As for the sound, the powerful Dolby Digital 5.1 mix of the German dub is particularly pleasing, though the original Swiss German version admittedly has a bit more charm. Good!

Extras: The bonus material of the DVD is quite clear. There's a nice promotional interview with the director (about 6 mins), an uncommented look at the filming (about 8 mins), and just under 15 minutes of cut or extended scenes. Nice additions, but not really substantial additions to the film.

Conclusion: A Summer Sands Dream is an original tale from Switzerland that scores points for dry humor, whimsical ideas, and just the right amount of romance. The DVD doesn't always live up to the quality of the main film in terms of technology and extras, but it's still definitely worth buying!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp