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Reviews
Schläfer (2005)
A story between the lines
"Schläfer" tells the story of the scientist Johannes Mehrveldt, and his Arabian colleague Farid Atabay.
The German "secret service" contacts Johannes to spy on Farid because they suspect him to be a sleeper (schläfer). After Johannes has fought with his doubts about this "job", he finally starts reporting about Farid, when he starts dating the girl that Johannes has a crush on.
"Schläfer" is a very typical German movie of 2006. Apart from the highly up to date "terrorist" background, it tells the story in quiet, discreet pictures (except from some party scene), which are very popular at German directors at present (in the beginning you have a 4 minute long steadicamscene without a cut). But it is definitely one of the better movies in this style (not just another Aki Kaurismäki or Jim Jarmush copy). The pictures are partly very fresh and unspent. The story itself is interesting because of its social-political background (we have a huge debate about integration...) but also because of the psychological relationship between the three characters (Power and envy).
"Schläfer" is a modern movie, with complex characters (Bastian Trost is really good) and a story that deals with an issue effecting us all, politically as well as socially. It looks really great, thanks to a solid cinematography-job by Reinhold Vorschneider and the talent of the director Benjamin Heisenberg. But for all that, the fascination that inspires the audience (like "city of god" or "paradise now" is missing. That makes it a 8/10