The weekendPosted by Als Gorman on June 10th, 2021 123 show left-wing terrorism of the late 1970s did not let go of the German film industry, even after the star-studded major project "The Baader Meinhof Complex". Nina Grosse chose a different approach than Uli Edel and Bernd Eichinger for their terrorism picture sheet ("Olgas Sommer", "Feuerreiter") ) for her drama "The Weekend". Similar to Susanne Schneider in "Es Comes the Day", the way in which the RAF's legacy is dealt with today is negotiated on a private level. But even if Grosse deletes many lines of thought and characters from Bernhard Schlink's over-analytical novel, the characters remain cool despite the well-known actors and lifeless. The early pardon of the former RAF terrorist Jens Kessler (Sebastian Koch) comes as a surprise to his family and friends. While Jens was imprisoned for 18 years, his former cronies have closed their left-wing past and integrated themselves into civil society. But how does Jens feel about his ideals today and above all: does he really regret his actions? Especially his caring sister Tine (Barbara Auer) and his former lover Inga (Katja Riemann), who is also the mother of his son Gregor (Robert Gwisdek), have mixed feelings about meeting the inscrutable Jens. To celebrate Jen's first weekend in freedom, Tine invites Inga and her husband Ulrich (Tobias Moretti) as well as Jen's old friend Henner (Sylvester Groth) to their secluded property in need of renovation. But Jens is not very enthusiastic about seeing old companions again. He just wants to finally find out who of his confidants betrayed him to the police. Accusations are voiced, old memories are dug out and ideals are challenged. The surprising arrival of Jens' son Gregor leads to an escalation of the tense situation ... Bernhard Schlink's ("Der Vorleser") novel was accused by many critics of being too high-school, telling the ideals and crimes of the RAF with too meticulous positions. For her adaptation of Schlink's novel, author and director Nina Grosse detoxified not only that Figure personnel, but above all threw overboard the questionable attempt to locate the terror of the RAF somewhere between 1968 idealism, National Socialism heritage and pioneering modern terrorism. Because of this shift in focus, "The Weekend" is above all an intimate family drama about the timeless Topics generation conflict, trust and forgiveness. The setting for the family conflict resolution is a country estate in Brandenburg in need of renovation, which gives the filmed drama additional severity. This is where Jens and Ulrich clash: on the one hand, the ex-terrorist, who reflects on his actions but does not reject them completely - a figure who is loosely based on Christian Klar's life - on the other, the long-established bourgeois entrepreneur . But the two alpha animals not only argue about the sovereignty of interpretation, but also vie for Inga's favor, who was once with the prisoner and now meets Jens again for the first time in many years at the side of her husband. Despite the long years in prison, Jens is still an aggressive man who is convinced of his ideals. Sebastian Koch ("The Lives of Others", "Black Book") plays him with great presence, but also with weakness, especially when it comes to confronting his son. But no matter how charismatic Koch fulfills his role, the character depicted in the novel would undoubtedly have been a greater acting challenge: broken by life, depicted by years in prison and doubting the ideals of yesteryear. The married couple Inga and Ulrich are also experiencing a similarly strong revaluation, placing the big one at the center of the story much more than Schlink did. Katja Riemann ("The Pharmacist") mentions Inga, standing between two men and two opposing perspectives, from the first scene, as a woman torn by doubts with a perfectly put on expression of suffering. Her interaction with Tobias Moretti ("Jud Süss - Film without Conscience "), which lets the businessman Ulrich, who has a confectionery empire, rave against the deeds and ideals of the ex-prisoner with bite and a pronounced feeling of superiority.
And also the young actors Elisa Schlott ("Draußen am See") as Ingas provocatively appearing daughter Doro, who flirts with youthful naivety and slyness, and Robert Gwisdek ("3 rooms / kitchen / bathroom") as Gregor, who is deeply disappointed by his biological father convince in their roles. And even if the characters lack a bit of depth overall, the confrontation between the generations unfolds, for example when Gregor sees his father's struggle as a general failure a
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