Outland Park

17-year-old Sascha (Jasna Fritzi Bauer) has truly not hit the jackpot in life. Her mother was brutally murdered by her stiff father Vadim E. and since then the girl has to take care of her younger siblings, cope with their hatred and grief and then also cope with the dreary everyday life in the grey suburban settlement, which is only called Scherbenpark by the teenagers. But Sascha has not let this break her. She has become a strong young woman who can stand up to the stupid remarks of the hormone-driven boys from the settlement and who also stands up for her little brother when he is bullied by the older ones. But when an interview with Vadim is published in the newspaper, in which the murderer is portrayed as a reformed sinner, the girl can no longer keep her anger in check. She wants to confront the editor responsible, Volker Trebur (Ulrich Noethen). He is visibly sorry about the publication of the insensitive article and is determined to make up for his mistake. And before she knows it, Sascha ends up in a new, middle-class life alongside Volker and his son Felix (Max Hegewald), in a world completely unknown to her, where a whole new side of life is opened up to her.

With her documentary Prinzessinnenbad, filmmaker Bettina Blümner has proven herself the perfect candidate for the feature film adaptation of Alina Bronsky's debut novel Scherbenpark. And indeed, Blümner manages perfectly to transport the world in which the main character Sascha grows up, far from all clichés, to the screen with an extremely good power of observation. In doing so, she perfectly avoids a mistake that I'm sure many other filmmakers would have made. Although Sasha's own life is overshadowed by a traumatic tragedy and she is confronted with failed existences, shattered dreams and a certain hopelessness day after day in the housing estate, the film doesn't wallow in gloom and social consternation. Instead, clever dialogue and accented humor coherently alternate with moments of intense drama.

This makes for a very engaging and, above all, entertaining overall picture. And in doing so, Scherbenpark achieves a feat that is all too rarely accomplished, especially in German cinema: the film manages the perfect balancing act between entertainment and ambition, between thought-provoking moments and light-footed wit, between engaging charm and biting poignancy. This is not only due to the novel and its successful adaptation by screenwriter Katharina Kress, but also to the leading actress Jasna Fritzi Bauer. In Ein Tick anders and Barbara, the young actress already proved that she is one of the most interesting and strongest young talents in German cinema. And Jasna Fritzi Bauer underpins this impression again here with a very multi-layered performance, against which even such good co-stars as Ulrich Noethen have a hard time.

It's a shame that films like Scherbenpark have such a hard time finding a wide audience, especially since the subject matter tends to suggest a depressing piece of heavy auteur cinema. But that's not what this successful adaptation of the novel is. Scherbenpark is entertainment cinema for the heart and mind, a beautiful story and a well-observed portrait of society, which friends of the more sophisticated German film should not miss. Absolutely worth seeing

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp