The Coming Days - DVD

Film: The world is on the brink of the abyss. The financial crisis was just the beginning. It's all downhill from here on out. Is it still possible to retain one's humanity? Is it still possible to feel something like hope and does it even make sense to cling to the wish for a better future? Lars Kraume explores these and other questions in his bleak vision of the future, The Coming Days.

The world is actually open to the two sisters Laura (Bernadette Heerwagen) and Cecilia (Johanna Wokalek), who come from good backgrounds. But the world has changed - and not necessarily for the better. Fear and insecurity determine people's everyday lives, the gap between rich and poor is widening, which often ends in violence. While Laura, despite everything, still believes in a future and wants nothing more than to start a family with the love of her life, Hans (Daniel Brühl), Cecilia allows herself to be dragged down into an underworld of terrorism by her boyfriend Konstantin (August Diehl). But the day comes when both sisters discover that life in this time can no longer be planned...

Shot in Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Wuppertal, in the Taunus and in the Tyrol, Die kommenden Tage is above all visually convincing. Kraume creates a picture of the future that is anchored in the present, yet has subtle futuristic elements. While technology continues to advance and people are ubiquitously sprinkled with colorful advertisements, reality looks quite different with empty supermarket shelves and mass protests. The way Kraume creates a more than realistic scenario here is quite great cinema. Both visual effects (for example, skyscrapers of the Frankfurt skyline have been integrated into the Berlin cityscape) and the set can easily stand up to international comparison. But unfortunately not all aspects of the production are as successful.

Because what doesn't really do the film any good is that Kraume's ambitions were apparently just too high. He tries to cram as much as he can into the story, so the overall picture ends up feeling completely overstuffed. On one side rather staid family history, then again terror thriller, love story and all this as a gloomy forecast of the future - here it would have been better to show exactly the restraint in terms of content, which makes the film visually so great and above all effective.

The actors all deliver performances at a high level. One especially wishes to see more of Bernadette Heerwagen after this strong performance. She and her fellow actors move confidently through a scenario that offers some moments that linger long after you've finished watching the film. For instance, in an inherently simple scene that shows Laura shopping, Kraume proves what a high level his film is moving at in its best moments. From the walk through the dreary supermarket aisles to the walk home escorted by supermarket security, this scene exudes an extremely oppressive realism that shows how well thought out the film's concept is down to the smallest details.

In the end, The Coming Days leaves an ambivalent impression. Well acted and in itself very hauntingly directed, Lars Kraume's film is a fascinating and disturbing vision of the future that is absolutely far above TV level, especially because of its visuals. On the other hand, the story seems overloaded and unnecessarily drawn out with almost soap-like elements. An ambitious work, which unfortunately only works to a limited extent. Nevertheless, for lovers of sophisticated entertainment cinema from Germany well worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The technical implementation is okay, but could still be much better in most aspects. The image sharpness is on a decent level, but there are always visible weaknesses in the representation of smaller details, especially in the darker moments. With the sound only here and there by well implemented sound effects a little dynamic comes into play, otherwise the action remains rather quiet and unspectacular.

Extras: The double DVD brings a few really worth seeing extras with it, although there are again some downers. Starting things off on the first disc is an alternate beginning and alternate (or extended) ending. These two longer scenes make the focus of the story much more on the family aspect. The decision to change the beginning in particular proves to be an extremely wise one in the end.

Continues with a nearly 3 minute promotional clip that is touted here as a making of, an uncommented behind the scenes look at the film, and some interviews with the cast and creators of the film. While these features are primarily promotional materials, the extras on the second disc go into much more detail. This is primarily true of the 90-minute making of The Days Gone By, which goes into great detail and is pleasantly commercial-free about the making of this ambitious work. But unfortunately there is a small shortcoming here. The director of the Making of repeatedly comments on his documentary from off-screen in English. Unfortunately, these comments are not subtitled, which clearly dulls the enjoyment of the documentary for viewers who do not speak English well or at all. The interviews with those involved in the filming are, of course, in German. And even if every viewer should understand the most important information, so would have been (optional) subtitles for the English-language part of the documentary quite desirable.

Finally, there is on the second disc still a short documentary of just under 10 minutes, in which was asked on the set about what the perfect drug is.

Conclusion: The Coming Days is a very ambitious film. Perhaps too ambitious, because the many different elements threaten to crush the whole under their enormous weight. But the many positive aspects and especially the basis for discussion that this film offers definitely make the drama worth watching. The double DVD is technically on a good level and has a few good extras to offer, most notably the 90 minute making of, which is well worth watching. Recommendable

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp