"Laurin" is a Hungarian / West German co-production from 1989, so shortly before the Fall of the German Wall. At 80 minutes, it is a relatively short movie and it is among the most known career works by director and co-writer Robert Sigl. I think with this brief runtime, the film has pretty good focus, it is not scared of crucial plot developments, even the death of central characters and the film also succeeds on a visual level. With that, I am of course referring to costumes, sets, cinematography. I think it is a combination of all these good aspects that make this one eventually worth watching, even if moments of true greatness are missing perhaps. The actors, the young ones as well as the grown-ups, are doing a good job too and add their fair share to this becoming a success. Overall, the film works best as a mystery thriller with some solid horror aspects at times as well. A lot is hidden in the shadows here and the filmmaker succeeded in letting the audience care for what to find there. It is also quite easy to care for the title character here played convincingly by the young Dóra Szinetár. A bit of a shame her career has not really worked out too well afterward, at least on an international level. And even if this is mostly a German-language film, I personally somehow felt it more to be Hungarian, perhaps also because of the majority of actors' nationalities. But no matter where they are from, it still stays a decent outcome and I recommend checking it out. Competent achievement. Go see it.
Review of Laurin
