Breaking Horizons (2012) User Reviews

Aylin establishing her worth

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 16 July 2013]

If a movie can make or break an actor, this movie should prove that Aylin is at the top of her game. The actress that most might know from Almanya, shows that she can do much more than comedy. It's a tour or a ride or whatever you want to call it. And while she was able to shine in an ensemble movie too ("3 Zimmer, Küche Bad"), this is her baby right here (no pun intended).

Animal lovers might have an issue here and there, but the movie is defined by other things of course. Relationships between friends and strangers get explored, an interesting look into human psyche and how deep and far things can be taken. A philosophical aspect can be attached to the movie too. There is a reason for that title. If I were to judge just the performance it would've been at least a 9/10, but the movie itself leaves a few things/strands without resolution (which is life like and had to be done running time wise I'm sure), some decisions seem far stretched too. Still the ending almost makes up for all the (little) flaws.

Strange ending

[blumdeluxe · 7/10 · 3 June 2018]

"Am Himmel der Tag" tells the story of a young girl, who doesn't take her studies all too serious and prefers to stay out in clubs with her best friend instead. When she meets a cute guy one night, everything seems to be an exciting adventure until she notices that she is pregnant. Still trying to adopt to the fact, her unborn child dies and she has to face some very serious realities.

The beginning of the film looks a bit like it could have been a role model for "Victoria", maybe one of the reasons why for me it is the strongest part of the film, even though some of the dialogues appear somehow scripted to give explanations for later actions in advance, which is a little too obvious for my taste. But the mood is established perfectly and the actors deliver tremeandous performances. Afterwards, the drama unfolds, not developing the final ups and downs but also avoiding some stereotypes other German films seem to have booked. The ending however is strange. I guess it's meant to show that you can't just end an ongoing story but it comes really rapidly and leaves the audience hanging in the air a bit.

All in all this is a strong movie with a very interesting plot and background that is refreshingly different than most tv dramas but misses the last consequence to leave an even stronger impact.

Difficult subject, solid execution

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 23 November 2016]

"Am Himmel der Tag" is a German movie from 2012, so this one will have its 5th anniversary next year. Lets talk a bit about the title here. The working title was "Und dann war alles still" and I do not like that one because it is a huge spoiler. But I think the title they went for is at least as bad, maybe even worse as it sounds very pretentious and has little to do with the film's action. Oh well.. I guess they wanted a memorable title and they sure got it. I just wish they could have found something between these two extremely bad options. The English international title "Breaking Horizons" is only slightly better. But this is just one of not too many problems I had with this 85-minute film. Director Pola Schirin Beck does a good job and the script by Burkhardt Wunderlich also works pretty nicely and keeps the audience interested. And then there is Aylin Tezel who gives a possibly career-defining performance that had me glued to the screen for the most part. Admittedly her amazing looks also helped matter for sure.

One of the best things about this film is how real and authentic it all felt. I never was under the impression that I was watching actors, partially because they did a good job with their performances, but also because the story was shown us in a way where I thought that it could all happen to anybody. A young woman has a one-night stand with a barkeeper, becomes pregnant and struggles with friends and family because of the way she changes during her pregnancy and because she was about to go through the process of becoming somebody completely different in order to master the challenges ahead of her. But fate will change everything once again. Yes there were a few moments when I felt it was a bit odd, for example that nobody at the celebration tries talking to her why she seems so unhappy. It was absolutely easy to see when they were singing and she was sitting there looking depressed. And I also did not care about the entire Martin story line, but I guess they had to include it because otherwise the film may have run for 75 minutes only. So it is okay I guess. Maybe it was just my personal perception that these parts added nothing of value to the film. It's just subjective. Maybe others did not care about the parts with the neighbor. All in all, the good easily outweighs the bad and Tezel does a very good job in carrying this film. I totally can see why Tezel and the filmmakers received a great deal of awards recognition for their work here. It is definitely deserved and the criticisms I mentioned should not keep you at all from checking it out. Thumbs up, go see it.