Finsterworld

A journey through a surreal Germany: A police officer in a bear costume. A female documentary filmmaker who is unable to find an interesting story. A pedicurist who carefully sets aside the hard skin removed from the feet of his aged female patient. A rich couple that refuses to sit in a German-built car. A history student uninterested in a class visit to a concentration camp. A wild man training a raven in the woods. In this anthology film, all are bound by family ties or a moment of coincidence in a country where the sun always shines and everybody is beautiful, polite, successful or happy. That is until they reveal their darker side, and we discover that the step from idyll to inferno is a short one. FINSTERWORLD is an ironic antithesis of the Heimatfilm and full of malicious observations and sharp-tongued remarks. Not even the name of its director Frauke Finsterwalder remains unscathed. Rarely has German cinema produced so much black humour in one fell swoop.