Parkour - DVD

Film: For Richie (Christoph Letkowski) there are only two things that spark something like passion and fire in him: parkour running and his girlfriend Hannah (Nora von Waldstätten). While extreme sports allow him to live for a few minutes in a world where there seem to be no limits, nothing that can stop him, he keeps hitting his limits in his relationship with Hannah. That's because jealousy and fear of loss keep causing conflicts that make a happy relationship nearly impossible. When Richie's job causes an accident, the dangerous spiral can no longer be stopped and the young man is in danger of slipping away for good.

With his feature film debut "Parkour" Marc Rensing has succeeded in creating a very haunting work that shows how much everyday fears can dominate and ultimately destroy our lives. Richie's inability to control his jealousy and stand by his fears of failure make a happy life nearly impossible. Richie is stuck in place while his girlfriend moves on and chases new goals - all the more reason for him to be jealous, of course. More and more he drives himself deeper into his own abyss, and even the parkour running that usually gives him a sense of freedom and control loses its effect.

Watching this is gripping and stirring, thanks to good staging and the convincing young actors. While the ending is not really surprising for film connoisseurs, it is absolutely consistent and coherent for the course of the story. To Rensing's credit, he doesn't get too lost in the parkour sequences or pander to a young audience with an overly intrusive soundtrack. To be sure, the film does address anxieties that increasingly young people are facing. But overall the story is quite universal, so that even adult viewers can be touched by Richie's fate.

"Parkour" is a convincing debut, a good contribution to young German cinema that can be warmly recommended to friends of German drama. Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The sound, contrary to what is stated on the cover, is not available in two versions, but only in Dolby Digital 5.1. The mix is well done and offers atmospheric ambient sounds as well as a suitably tuned soundtrack and well intelligible dialogue. The image is clean and has decent overall sharpness and good contrast. The color scheme is in tune with the atmosphere of the story. Overall, a well-deserved for the technical realization: "Good"!

Extras: The error devil has also crept in on the extras on the cover. The here announced Deleted Scenes are not on the Disc. But some interviews, which are concealed on the cover. In addition, there is a rather short (7 minutes) Making of, which consists of uncommented footage from the filming, as well as a 3 minute look at footage of stunt scenes. Three trailer drafts, the finished trailer and a slideshow round out the bonus package.

Conclusion: "Parkour" is a strong piece of young German cinema that scores points with compelling actors and engaging production. The DVD pleases with a good technical realization, only the bonus material turns out altogether somewhat mau. Nevertheless: All in all, this DVD can be recommended to every lover of German cinema

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp