"Zimtstern und Halbmond" is a German German-language television film from 2010, so this one has its 10th anniversary soon. It runs for approximately 90 minutes like the vast majority of German small screen releases and the director is Matthias Steurer, who is a pretty prolific filmmaker, was back then already in fact, certainly far more prolific than his writer Daniel Speck. And perhaps this lack of expertise when it comes to screenplay writing shows here because the outcome overall is nothing to be proud of. As for the cast, Robert Atzorn is one that many German movie fans will recognize and Lisa Maria Potthoff is also enjoying a successful career I believe. These are the only ones familiar to me. They play father and daughter in here. This is the story of a woman who has a new boyfriend for a couple months and she decides to bring him to her family for the firstg time. That means to her mother and father. And as this boyfriend is Palestinean, problems arise pretty quickly. The first meeting becomes a big mess. And it goes on like this, but the real mess is the film itself. I mean Atzorn is a good actor, but the way they wrote his character here is really nothing anybody could portray convincingly. His daughter says he is not a bad person, then he randomly calls the man a Taliban because of his religion and then we are still supposed to believe that he does not mind other relgions and cultures as we are inevitably steering towards the really forced and unrealistic happy ending. The boyfriend is nothing better honestly the way he was written. His behavior is extremely contradictory at times. Sometimes he seems like a modern Middle European man with zero roots linked to where he is from, sometimes he seems like a devout Muslim. I never felt like I was watching an actual person and not just a poorly-written character. Same is true about his relationship woth Potthoff's character. These two are about to get married? After being a couple for three months? That alone is absurd enough. Which is more absurd even is that they are constantly arguing, like 50% of the time there is drama going on between them and they are not getting along well at all. Great foundation for a happy marriage. And still, the inevitable happens at the end and the two get married. On a ship. Come on, Atzorn's character's navy background is hardly enough to explain that. Or to explain that he is actually the one who acts as the priest in this scene. That was so ridiculous and well it fit in nicely though with the completely unrealistic turn of events. All they cared for was the super happy ending and the fact that it was really unrealistic did not matter to the filmmakers one bit. Embarrassing stuff.
Also the mother, i.e. Atzorn's character's wife, was so uninteresting. I mean they could have completely left her out of the film and nothing would have changed. I guess had they done so, they could have included another sob story about how she died and Atzorn's character is completely on his own now and his daughter is the only woman in his life. More cringe. So yeah well, this film is pretty bad most of the time. Just one other moment, namely when the Palestinean is talking to his dad via camera and all of a sudden we find out the dad speaks perfect German. What the hell? Was that supposed to be funny? It made no sense at all. In general, they were messing up big-style when trying to go for laughs. Another example of that would be when we have that other guy, the devout muslim, at the house and Atzorn's character of course isn't amused. This is the kind of movie that is shown occasionally in the afternoon program here in Germany, especially in December because of the holiday background, but even for this program slot it is too weak. It should turn into oblivion. Big failure this movie is and it gets worse and worse the longer it goes. Kinda ridiculous to see Syberberg's daughter as part of the crew. Highly not recommended. Oh by the way, also what I would like to say is that it is sending a really crooked message when it comes to Islam in general. There are several examples, but one that stayed most in the mind to me was the comparison between the Rothenburg Cannibal and Islamic terrorists or wife-beaters. Guess what happens more frequently, even if this film does not want you to believe so clearly ignoring the facts. I don't want to go a lot into detail, but the facts speak for itself. I mean there is a wikipedia page with terrorist attacks in the last 10 years, maybe even more, and the numbers are devastating and no we do not have a case of cannibalism here in Germany each and every day. Thank you. And finally, also another example of how shoddy this film is and how it lacks attention to detail altogether: The guy from palestine, despite being apparently being a big fan of the musician, is not even able to pronounce the name Yusuf Islam, because he pronounces the last four letters of the surname like the word "slam". Which means if we think a bit further that he cannot even pronounce his own religion. German media would have loved it I suppose, so from this perspective it is a movie way ahead of its time. O tempora o mores. Horrible. Horrible.
Also the mother, i.e. Atzorn's character's wife, was so uninteresting. I mean they could have completely left her out of the film and nothing would have changed. I guess had they done so, they could have included another sob story about how she died and Atzorn's character is completely on his own now and his daughter is the only woman in his life. More cringe. So yeah well, this film is pretty bad most of the time. Just one other moment, namely when the Palestinean is talking to his dad via camera and all of a sudden we find out the dad speaks perfect German. What the hell? Was that supposed to be funny? It made no sense at all. In general, they were messing up big-style when trying to go for laughs. Another example of that would be when we have that other guy, the devout muslim, at the house and Atzorn's character of course isn't amused. This is the kind of movie that is shown occasionally in the afternoon program here in Germany, especially in December because of the holiday background, but even for this program slot it is too weak. It should turn into oblivion. Big failure this movie is and it gets worse and worse the longer it goes. Kinda ridiculous to see Syberberg's daughter as part of the crew. Highly not recommended. Oh by the way, also what I would like to say is that it is sending a really crooked message when it comes to Islam in general. There are several examples, but one that stayed most in the mind to me was the comparison between the Rothenburg Cannibal and Islamic terrorists or wife-beaters. Guess what happens more frequently, even if this film does not want you to believe so clearly ignoring the facts. I don't want to go a lot into detail, but the facts speak for itself. I mean there is a wikipedia page with terrorist attacks in the last 10 years, maybe even more, and the numbers are devastating and no we do not have a case of cannibalism here in Germany each and every day. Thank you. And finally, also another example of how shoddy this film is and how it lacks attention to detail altogether: The guy from palestine, despite being apparently being a big fan of the musician, is not even able to pronounce the name Yusuf Islam, because he pronounces the last four letters of the surname like the word "slam". Which means if we think a bit further that he cannot even pronounce his own religion. German media would have loved it I suppose, so from this perspective it is a movie way ahead of its time. O tempora o mores. Horrible. Horrible.
