Schwesterherz

Anna (Heike Makatsch) is an overworked music industry executive. At first sight, this is the story of her bumpy relationship with Philipp (Marc Hosemann), her slacker boyfriend. At second sight, it's a family drama about estranged sisters circling their distant mother like planets circling the sun. But in fact, "Schwesterherz" is a study on how telecommunication is ruining Anna's life. Almost all her troubles revolve around plugging in, picking up and ringing off. Her work, her mum and her boyfriend are present almost exclusively in the form of emails, ring tones, phone calls and voice mail messages. Her mobile phone has a tight grip on Anna's soul, most of all once she loses it. The script is Johanna Adorján's screen writing debut. Although she is easily one of today's finest German-language journalists, "Schwesterherz" tries to accomplish too many things at once, cramming an imminent break-up, severed family ties, abortion, drug abuse and the near-fatal blow of a random road accident into 90 minutes. But Heike Makatsch saves the movie by her believable portrayal of an embittered thirty-something beauty, stuck in the middle between her professional goals as a social climber and her emotional needs. You will enjoy her performance if you liked Karoline Eichhorn in Dominik Graf's "Der Felsen". To me, "Schwesterherz" feels like a more serious version of Djamel Bensalah's "Homeboys at the Beach".