"Zaun an Zaun", which means "Fence to fence", is a German television movie from 2017, so these approximately 90 minutes are neither a really new nor old outcome. The director here is Peter Gersina and he is a really a prime example of how quantity does not equal quality. He has worked on a lot over the years since the start of the new millennium, but there is almost no quality at all in his body of work. As for the two writers Reese and Viebrock, they are not half as experienced as Gersina and back in 2017, they were almost rookies in fact and looking at their wwriting for this truly horrible movie here, one can only hope they really manage to step things up or try their luck in another profession. Now let's take a look at the story and cast. I will start with the two lead actors. You can see them on the picture here on imdb. The first credit is Adnan Maral, the man on the right and I was genuinely shocked how bad he was. I mean if you cast somebody for a lead role, then you should at least make sure to pick somebody where it does not seem with 50% of the lines that they are completely fake and staged and terribly delivered. There was nothing authentic about his performance. I never had the impression I was watching an actual character, but just an actor who was reciting lines. Poorly, that is. Been a while since I saw such a horrible lead performance and I've seen a lot. Also lots of bad films, but most of the time it is at least three quarters bad writing. Here Maral manages to almost impossible to be even worse than the abysmal script he is trying to deliver. What is even more shocking is how long he has been in films if he is still that bad now with all the experience he had. As for his female co-lead, I have known Esther Schweins, who just turned 50 by the way, since the comedy series "RTL Samstag Nacht" over twenty years ago (man it's been a long time since RTL actually came up with good quality projects), so she started as a comedian back in the day, but quickly moved on to acting because especially female comedians still have a fairly hard time. Also here in Germany. Not a talented actress though. Most of the films she has appeared in were pretty bad as well and it is kinda self-explanatory she is in this one here. Nonetheless, I want to say in her favor that next to Maral, she is not half asbad as he is, although there are also many cringeworthy moments to her, but these are mostly because of the way the character was written. One example would be when she screams "Grillen" / "Barbecue" on one occasion. Another would be when she is up there on the roof screaming with joy that she managed to overcome her writer's block and make progress with her book. Or when she says something about the marriage with her ex-husband, a very brief, but very cringeworthy inclusion that was supposed to be funny. Or when she says how she is in love with the male central character. (Admittedly his reaction was even worse.) Or when we are supposed to believe she just oozes creativity all of a sudden after they had sex. Or when early on they show us how well she is getting along with the male protagonist's kids, especially daughter as she knows about her studies. Or perhaps the negative highlight, although this one is already so bad it was almost funny again and I am talking about how she goes berserk on the flowers towards the end in that pseudo conflict scene when we are supposed to think oh no they are not getting together. It is truly an abomination and I feel sad for Schweins that, apparently to make a living, she has to agree to play complete garbage characters like the one in this movie.
Now as for Maral, he has his terrible moments too, but yeah like I wrote before: His abysmal line delivery overshadows everything. And it's not a problem that he is Turkish originally. His German is really pretty good. I will spare you all the moments when his portrayal really sucked because then I would quickly be hitting the character limit. The supporting characters are also really weak. Gizem Emre may be pretty stunning, but that is all the positive I can say about her. Then again, she is still young and can perhaps improve unlike her movie dad. Sometimes they were so bad that I actually thought that he gave his bad genes when it comes to range, versatility and line delivery to his (movie) daughter. So at least this was when the film made sense, in the most negative way imaginable. Away from him, or indirectly because he is in the scene as well, there is this final scene when we find out the male protagonist's son and the female protagonist's daughter have been cheated on by their spouses. Of course they have. They are harmless themselves and still stay with their partners despite being attracted to each other. But this ending is clearly an implication that they will get divorced and of course will become a couple if they move in with mom and dad. Now, everything else in this film was really bad already, but this was truly a massive abomination and insult of every audience member's intelligence. Also that it happens at the exact same time. Screw realism and authenticity completely, just make sure everybody gets their happy ending, no matter how much nonsense it may be. And these films are the stuff that ARD forced people to pay a double-digit amount for each and every month. To be insulted like this. I already mentioned the writer's block story. This is another highly disgusting aspect and seeing how she gets over it as if it was nothing is a true slap in the face of everybody who indeed struggles with this issue that can actually destroy their careers. They should be ashamed. Of course , also we find out at the end that Schweins' character is her boss' most talented writer. Of course. From zero to hero. Can't pay the rent, but is a real star. Oh yeah, the boss is also the ex-husband and he clearly is at least still sexually interested in her. Sigh. Luckily she has Maral's character now in her life screaming at her how she has to find herself to find a happy ending. True reference to the actual characters' story and I cannot believe they actually meant this seriously. Or the scene in which he is supposed to admit his exact feelings to her. I literally wanted to throw up in that scene. IOr it least switch off the television. really hard not to. I said earlier that I have hope how the two writers here can still improve because their youth is a bit of an excuse for this screenplay here, but now thinking about it again I must say it is so bad that there is no hope for improvement, especially because they were apparently also complete incapable of seeing how each other's work entirely sucked and (cautiously) direct their partner's attention to it. Back to the cast: One actress I was surprised to see in here was Juliane Köhler, even (or especially) because she just plays a minor character. I thought she was above such horrible films, especially with that Norwegian/German co-production from not too long ago that is really really good in which she plays the lead. Sadly not it seems. Here, her character also makes sure to introduce another garbage story line, the one with the flowers. Yeah right, Maral's character struggled with botanics to an extent where he would not even be accepted into the competition, but then all of a sudden is so good that he wins said competition. Sigh. Again, no realism, 100% feel-good. Disgusting stuff. And don't even get me started about the blue flower growing on the female protagonist's premises. I don't even. On the rare occasions when they took a slightly more comedic route like the characters not liking each other early on, the kids' attempts at finding dates for him, the exact title of his job, the "Türkisch für Anfänger" reference (Maral starred in this one twoo, which totally makes sure I will probably never watch it), the difference in their characters with how he is a pedant and she is creative chaos (and how they switch roles in the final scene in the garden). As for the more serious moments, the sob story with the male protagonist's wife is incredibly difficult to watch because it is so poorly executed and again a slap in the face of actual widowers. The soundtrack is also a mess with how over the top it goes again and again in its desperate attempts to evoke emotion. Unreal stuff. Then again, how can I be surprised. After all, this is another ARD Degeto production and they sure stand for a certain (lack of) quality. If you think that with all the flaws I mentioned, this is it, then you are very wrong. What I elaborated on is probably not even 10 of the scenes during which this film sucked. Yes it is this bad. A definite contender for worst 2017 movie. From Germany? No. Worldwide. I just don't give out one-star ratings. Highly not recommended. Oh yeah, there is also a little fire for the sake of more drama purpose. Needless to say. Other people have all the stuff that happens in here over the course of 25 years, they have it in one summer or so. Makes totally sense, right? Truly repulsive film. Shame on Yalla Productions too, another pseudo-deep German film about German and Turkish culture clashing. This one delivers absolutely nothing except one crappy scene after the next.
Now as for Maral, he has his terrible moments too, but yeah like I wrote before: His abysmal line delivery overshadows everything. And it's not a problem that he is Turkish originally. His German is really pretty good. I will spare you all the moments when his portrayal really sucked because then I would quickly be hitting the character limit. The supporting characters are also really weak. Gizem Emre may be pretty stunning, but that is all the positive I can say about her. Then again, she is still young and can perhaps improve unlike her movie dad. Sometimes they were so bad that I actually thought that he gave his bad genes when it comes to range, versatility and line delivery to his (movie) daughter. So at least this was when the film made sense, in the most negative way imaginable. Away from him, or indirectly because he is in the scene as well, there is this final scene when we find out the male protagonist's son and the female protagonist's daughter have been cheated on by their spouses. Of course they have. They are harmless themselves and still stay with their partners despite being attracted to each other. But this ending is clearly an implication that they will get divorced and of course will become a couple if they move in with mom and dad. Now, everything else in this film was really bad already, but this was truly a massive abomination and insult of every audience member's intelligence. Also that it happens at the exact same time. Screw realism and authenticity completely, just make sure everybody gets their happy ending, no matter how much nonsense it may be. And these films are the stuff that ARD forced people to pay a double-digit amount for each and every month. To be insulted like this. I already mentioned the writer's block story. This is another highly disgusting aspect and seeing how she gets over it as if it was nothing is a true slap in the face of everybody who indeed struggles with this issue that can actually destroy their careers. They should be ashamed. Of course , also we find out at the end that Schweins' character is her boss' most talented writer. Of course. From zero to hero. Can't pay the rent, but is a real star. Oh yeah, the boss is also the ex-husband and he clearly is at least still sexually interested in her. Sigh. Luckily she has Maral's character now in her life screaming at her how she has to find herself to find a happy ending. True reference to the actual characters' story and I cannot believe they actually meant this seriously. Or the scene in which he is supposed to admit his exact feelings to her. I literally wanted to throw up in that scene. IOr it least switch off the television. really hard not to. I said earlier that I have hope how the two writers here can still improve because their youth is a bit of an excuse for this screenplay here, but now thinking about it again I must say it is so bad that there is no hope for improvement, especially because they were apparently also complete incapable of seeing how each other's work entirely sucked and (cautiously) direct their partner's attention to it. Back to the cast: One actress I was surprised to see in here was Juliane Köhler, even (or especially) because she just plays a minor character. I thought she was above such horrible films, especially with that Norwegian/German co-production from not too long ago that is really really good in which she plays the lead. Sadly not it seems. Here, her character also makes sure to introduce another garbage story line, the one with the flowers. Yeah right, Maral's character struggled with botanics to an extent where he would not even be accepted into the competition, but then all of a sudden is so good that he wins said competition. Sigh. Again, no realism, 100% feel-good. Disgusting stuff. And don't even get me started about the blue flower growing on the female protagonist's premises. I don't even. On the rare occasions when they took a slightly more comedic route like the characters not liking each other early on, the kids' attempts at finding dates for him, the exact title of his job, the "Türkisch für Anfänger" reference (Maral starred in this one twoo, which totally makes sure I will probably never watch it), the difference in their characters with how he is a pedant and she is creative chaos (and how they switch roles in the final scene in the garden). As for the more serious moments, the sob story with the male protagonist's wife is incredibly difficult to watch because it is so poorly executed and again a slap in the face of actual widowers. The soundtrack is also a mess with how over the top it goes again and again in its desperate attempts to evoke emotion. Unreal stuff. Then again, how can I be surprised. After all, this is another ARD Degeto production and they sure stand for a certain (lack of) quality. If you think that with all the flaws I mentioned, this is it, then you are very wrong. What I elaborated on is probably not even 10 of the scenes during which this film sucked. Yes it is this bad. A definite contender for worst 2017 movie. From Germany? No. Worldwide. I just don't give out one-star ratings. Highly not recommended. Oh yeah, there is also a little fire for the sake of more drama purpose. Needless to say. Other people have all the stuff that happens in here over the course of 25 years, they have it in one summer or so. Makes totally sense, right? Truly repulsive film. Shame on Yalla Productions too, another pseudo-deep German film about German and Turkish culture clashing. This one delivers absolutely nothing except one crappy scene after the next.
