Film “791 Kilometers”: They still exist, the people behind the opinions

2023-12-16 17:03:57

You would really miss the car. Before anyone starts cooking mashed potatoes to pour over this text because of its rather reprehensible ecological stance, it should perhaps be added that the car would be missed as a place of social debate, of enlightenment in German films, with particular attention to the Munich film “Police Call 110” by Christian Petzold. That would be a nice doctoral thesis.

Christian Petzold used his inspector Hanns von Meuffels’ BMW as a kind of mobile interrogation room. Put the inspector and his respective suspects in the car and let them drive around.

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The fact that all of this – like almost everything with Petzold – has its roots in French films would, however, go too far here. Because „791 Kilometer“, the film that is supposed to be about after this little detour, is not a bit French and really not a Sunday evening crime thriller – and Gernold Gricksch and Tobi Baumann are not Christian Petzold either. However, the fundamental, essentially didactic drive is the same.

The car becomes the therapeutic couch of a torn republic, a moving confessional. You could almost mistake “791 Kilometers” for a Christmas film (at one point, while we are still at Munich Central Station, something flashes in the background that could almost be mistaken for a Christmas tree), but the film takes place in autumn.

And what is sung particularly warmly is not an Advent classic, not “Silent Night”, but rather a cover version of Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me”. Which brings us to the constructed nature of this supposed comedy. We’ll get to the Christmas miracle that she is later.

Stranded in the storm

So Munich in autumn. A storm called Herwarth paralyzed Germany. No plane flies. No train is running. There are lots of stranded people at the main train station who get a taxi voucher, but no taxi. Except for Joseph’s. He wants to go north, but no one knows that – and no one knows why until almost the end.

Too bad he forgot to turn off his taxi sign. Before he knows it, he can stow his provisions in the glove compartment and complain to the script gods, Gernold Gricksch puts four particularly cliched examples of contemporary German society in his car, all of whom – we are following a script – want to go to Hamburg.

Well, Josef can’t complain, he himself is a particularly clichéd example of contemporary German society. But maybe he did, you think to yourself as you try to get through the first three quarters of an hour of “791 Kilometers” and find the humor that a comedy should actually have, maybe Josef doesn’t deserve anything else.

Lena Urzendowsky is Susi

Source: Boxfish Films/ Filmwelt Distribution

So there’s Marianne, who already took part in Brokdorf, feels guilty because her generation did such a lousy job in climate protection, but finds the last generation incredibly stuffy. As a Susan Sontag revival, she has a silver strand in her hair, which Iris Berben plays against just as successfully as against almost all the platitudes that she has to recite for a long time.

Ben Münchow and Nilam Farooq, on the other hand, are a couple that most of the time you wish had never met. He – Philipp (“Phippsi”) is his name – is a rascal who needs to chill out, she – Tiana (“Tini”) is her name and has Iranian roots – is a tough startup founder who absolutely has to go to Hafencity to win millions from an investor to chat about the balance sheets. You don’t want to know how they got along until they got into Josef’s taxi.

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“Police Call” review

And in the middle of it all sits Little Red Riding Hood Susi. She is the childlike empress of this film. She likes to explain why she is a bit mentally reduced, but it’s not nice. She keeps asking questions that push everyone else to the edge of their sensitivities. Lena Urzendowski is the secret engine of this debate machine. Without Susi and her lack of distance, “791 Kilometers” wouldn’t even get to the Allianz Arena.

It rains constantly in Germany. Everything that happens later is hinted at in good time and properly prepared; “791 Kilometers” is a very German, almost bureaucratic film. The sovereignty of the debate changes with the pee breaks. You almost never have to laugh.

But that doesn’t seem to have been the goal of “791 Kilometers”. The five from the gas station are getting closer and closer to each other. Confess something to each other, tell each other something. Love each other. Become a family that they never had. Anyone who has persevered until then will have their hearts expand.

There is still hope

And he almost experiences a utopia: once you have dug through the worst mountains of debate waste together, everything will be fine. If you have to deal directly without the digital protective barrier, everything will be fine.

Then you find people behind the opinions, people you can rely on and lean on. It doesn’t have to be in a taxi, it can also be done at Advent bowling or at the company’s end-of-year party. There is still hope for this country. With that in mind – Merry Christmas.