"Das Wochenende" or "The Weekend" is a German 100-minute movie from 3 years ago written and directed by the fairly experienced Nina Grosse. She adapted Bernhard Schlink's novel for the screen here and you may have heard that name before as he is already the one who wrote "The Reader", the movie that brought Kate Winslet her Oscar win. But back to this one here. There are no international superstars in here this time, but a fairly solid cast of German actors who are known to everybody with an interest in German movies. Koch, Groth, Riemann, Moretti and Auer have been active in the industry for a long time. Experience shows and they deliver in here as well. Especially Riemann, who I am usually not too big a fan of, plays a somewhat different character than she usually does, also in terms of looks.Who I have not mentioned so far are Robert Gwisdek and Elisa Schlott, the 2 younger actors and both are really good. Gwisdek received a German Film award nomination and deservedly so. He lost the award to his father actually, but in my opinion the dad is not as talented as his son and plays almost the same characters in everything he is in. Robert channels his inner Kinski for this film here and is a joy to watch. Definitely a scene stealer. Schlott proves that she does not only look stunning and actually fairly similar to Scarlett Johansson, but also that she has genuine acting talent. Her career has not been in bloom in the last 3 years the way I hoped it would be, but I will have my fingers crossed things will be getting more positive for her again, also on the big screen."Das Wochenende" is not really a convincing movie in terms of political intrigue as you may guess from the description. For me, it worked more of a family drama with the characters' left wing backgrounds only being background action in the truest sense of the word. And the last 15 minutes were fairly uninteresting. Maybe they should have ended the film earlier, around the 85-minute mark, because when Gwisdek is out of the picture (and Schlott), the film just moves slowly towards the end without offering anything really. But that is my only criticism pretty much. One of the best German films from 2012 and I recommend it.

After Quellen Des Lebens we wanted to give German Movies another chance and were truly disappointed by this one. Katja Rieman is a good actress but no one can act convincingly with these flat dialogs. The actors always seemed to wait for someone to save them or say cut. Even Robert Gwisdek seemed not right in place in some scenes which nevertheless belong to the best this movie has to offer. Due to him, Bonaparte and the nice landscape three stars, otherwise zero. it's a shame that french movies are so much better and independently funded and the results of no one daring to be real creative and innovative leads to movies like this. I'm really sorry for the actors.

This is another solid drama based on a Bernhard Schlink novel. Similar to The Reader (2008) the protagonists are confronted with the consequences of what they've done and what they should or shouldn't have done.Das Wochenende chooses the story or RAF (German leftist terrorist group) as it's historical background. This somewhat forgotten chapter of recent German history is obviously not as potent as The Reader's WWII burden. The movie lacks any explicit or scandalous content, leaving us with the story and a strong performance of all cast members. Nina Grosse uses these as a tool to confidently carve out the film's niche in the given artistic framework.The film starts with a former RAF member leaving prison after a lengthy sentence carrying some personal belongings and a couple of German Marks. Welcomed by his sister, he spends a weekend in the country with some old friends. During the weekend he'll encounter the world of Germany within the EU with it's new currency and consumer mentality.With increasing tension the protagonists reveal more of their true selves. They are to learn more about themselves and their relationships.