User reviews

I recently saw this film during the USA Film Festival in Dallas. The USAFF's new program director mentioned it was her personal favorite of the festival. I can see why. Although there is no dialogue in the film, the director's visuals tell a tale all their own. The film is beautiful to look at with sharp colors, haunting music and amazing poetic images. The emotional pull of the actors makes the story both fascinating and moving. This is definitely not a "typical" film. It is unique, mysterious and moving, yet simple and elegant. It feels both gentle and brutal. A very emotional experience. This director's first film is a stunning accomplishment. I wish I could see more films like this....it's truly beautiful.

My girlfriend and me were very disappointed about that film, because we had expected more - especially if we thought of the long time the director has needed to make it. But first, we didn't really understand why the title is "Dolphins", for the animals are just seen in two scenes, each of them not longer than perhaps one or one and a half minute. It could be called as well "Nuts" (if this title wouldn't already exist), "insane", "Lara" or just "Without words": each of those titles would tell the same about this movie, and that is to say: nothing. Second, the film itself didn't tell us a story with which we could do anything. Yes, of course we got that it's about love and dreams and pressure and so on, but: what precisely? Perhaps it was a mistake to use not even a single word, for this would possibly help to clear the darkness of the plot. Many things can be said and shown without words, but in our opinion this mediocre film doesn't belong to them. Too many things are well-known, as in films like "One flew over the cuckoo's nest", "Awakenings" or "Der Krieger und die Kaiserin" (Germany), but these films are very much better and have a message one can understand. "Dolphins" shows us nothing but many symbols we have do decipher, and if we cannot, we stand alone and ask us: What does the author want to tell us? The only bright spot of the film is Julia Brendler, a really beautiful girl with a very, very poetic personality. But the film as a whole is extremely boring and in our opinion need not to be seen.

A story about a girl in a psychatrie hospital who just wants to be free. She lives in her own dreamworld with dolphins. There is a young boy who falls in love with her. He wants to help her to come free...

There is no dialogue, but that doesn´t matter.You don´t need dialogue to feel the love between the people. This is the way cinema has to be: pure magic! If you don´t cry when you watch this movie, you must have a heart of stone. Open your mind and feel...

This is one of those excellent short subject films that doesn't seem like either TV episode or someone attempting to get investors to expand it to feature length. It's a very simple, straightforward narrative brought to soul-stirring life by the gifted director. Ignore comments from those who seem too jaded to appreciate this little gem of a film. And at less than 30 minutes what do you have to loose just to check it out.

In fact the reason I am writing this at all is because I wondered what he had done since (I saw this years ago) and found to my shock and dismay no one has given him a project.

It is included on the DVD for the now defunct Film-Fest DVD series, Issue 3 (along with some other good shorts)

...for this disappointing short. This movie is full of embarrassing clichés (e.g. the asylum inmates behave absolutely unnatural) and looks to me like a "work in progress" that was finished by all means. The fuzzy and arbitrary story and the David Hamilton optics are just an obvious trick to cover the dilettantism behind all. However, some people will be fooled and mistake it for poetry... for those I recommend the insightful audio commentary on the film fest DVD that reveals absolutely no useful information - not to let room for interpretations - just because the directer himself doesn't have the slightest idea why he did certain things. I'm pretty sure that "deep inside" this german equivalent to Mark Borchardt (I clearly prefer "Coven" to "Dolphins" by the way) is aware that he is actually an untalented filmmaker...even (and much more because) he thinks he has created something wonderful and unique. The latter it is. 1 out of 10

The opening sequence alone is worth buying a "Dolphins" DVD. This movie is one extended moment of intense beauty, more like a modern dance performance than a theatrical production.

There is no dialog, so don't worry about having to deal with sub-titles inherent foreign films. The movie unveils itself in such a way as to reach any person in any modern culture.

The story is small and the plot simplistic, but you won't care. I promise.

Want to see an average 1986 commercial, directed by a guy with a big mouth and not much talent? Enjoy!! Farhad Yawaris debut displays an array of "Been seen before" ingredients and bores to death. Including the wasted orchestral soundtrack, which is nice for 5 minutes but from there just goes on and on... All in all: what a waste of time, energy, talent and money.