The Friend

With "Die Standesbeamtin", Swiss director Micha Lewinsky managed a small surprise success. As a consequence, Lewinsky's feature film debut, the tragicomedy "The Friend", is now coming to our cinemas.

Emil (Philippe Graber) is a real loner. He dreams of getting closer to the singer Larissa (Emilie Welti, better known as Sophie Hunger). But all he can do is gawk at her during her performances. When one day they start talking and Larissa leaves him with the unusual request that he claim to be her boyfriend to her family, Emil has no idea what he has gotten himself into. A short time later Larissa is dead and Emil is warmly welcomed by her grieving family. Finally, the withdrawn boy feels the kind of acceptance and emotional warmth he so lacks in his own family. But when he falls in love with Larissa's sister Nora (Johanna Bantzer), of all people, his newfound happiness also threatens to fall apart...

"The Friend" is a mix of romance, drama and comedy that entertains in its own special, very understated way. Micha Lewinsky doesn't aim for flat-out laughs, but purposefully creates situations in which humor serves as a redeeming catalyst for otherwise rather tense, sad or otherwise uncomfortable moments. And for these situations he has found the perfect leading man in Philippe Graber, whose awkward manner always makes him likeable, even when he is actually acting completely wrong

As in "Die Standesbeamtin" music also plays a major role in "Der Freund", with the songs of Emilie Welti, who has been able to build up a solid fan base as Sophie Hunger in recent years, taking center stage here. Larissa is only seen briefly in the film, but through her songs she hovers over the story like an ever-present shadow. This is important in that her apparent suicide thus doesn't feel like an act of pure selfishness, but like the last resort of a battered, broken soul that even a lovable person like Emil could never have saved.

Although there is a length or two within the film that comes from the very ponderous staging, the feature debut, which is well worth seeing, is still able to convince in the end. Especially in the finale Lewinsky skilfully avoids unnecessary sentimentality and surprises with a resolution that might not look like a happy ending at first glance, but which couldn't have turned out better on closer inspection. A small, sometimes a bit strange, but exactly because of that also special film, which can be recommended to lovers of German-language arthouse cinema.

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp