Speed - In Search of Lost Time

Time is running out, the deadline for my review of the documentary Speed - In Search of Lost Time is fast approaching. So I'm going to bang the keys. But before that I have to check my mails and answer important messages. So, now it's finally time for the review. Or maybe first check whether there are important messages and new contacts on Facebook. Damn, now the mobile phone is ringing. How am I supposed to concentrate on my work like this?

You probably know situations like this too. We have developed so many ways and efficiency models to get our work done quickly and communicate with colleagues or even friends. And yet, at the end of the day, we have less and less time left for ourselves, not more. What is the reason for this? And what can we do about it? Filmmaker Florian Opitz has taken on this very question. In his documentary, he sets out in search of lost time. He meets with editor Alex Rühe, who did without the Internet and mobile phones for half a year. He talks to scholars, scientists and economic experts, gets a short lesson on the value of time in economic competition from the successful management consultant Dr. Antonella Mei-Pocher due to her busy schedule, or learns at Reuters in London about the speed at which stock market transactions are conducted nowadays.

All this is revealing and extremely gripping, but also a little depressing, as it shows how much man is trapped in an ever-faster spinning hamster wheel. And that's exactly why Opitz has the very people in the next chapter of the film who have managed to step out of that hamster wheel. This begins the most entertaining and interesting part of the film, as Opitz shows here that there are definitely alternatives to an overly pessimistic view of the future. Admittedly, some of these alternatives are very individual and cannot be applied to a broader mass. But all these examples are full of valuable food for thought, from which everyone can take something that can make their own life happier and more pleasant, even on the hamster wheel.

Speed - In Search of Lost Time is an entertaining, multi-layered and rousingly staged documentary that deals with a topic that concerns our entire society. The fact that Opitz never pretends to know a perfect solution that will bring everyone the gross national happiness guaranteed to every citizen in Buthan by the constitution, that he wants to inform and stimulate thought without trying to instruct or convert the audience, is what makes the film so entertaining, worth watching and in a way also very important. And for that, in the end, it gets a more than deserved: Worth seeing! So, just slow down and go to the cinema - it's worth it!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp