Tauwetter Trailer INT from Philipp Hönig on Vimeo.
Tauwetter Trailer INT from Philipp Hönig on Vimeo.
Runtime: 87 minutes
Samuel and Tom are both trying to quit their criminal backgrounds. Without being aware of it they are opposite numbers in a tangle of rival gangs. As a driver, Tom carries out the wheelings and dealings of his criminal boss Fischer. The relationship with his girlfriend causes Tom's frozen emotions to thaw. With his feelings regained he becomes aware of the brutality of his associates during a raid, and he starts questioning his own behaviour. Samuel, too, haunted by recurring nightmares, cannot maintain his equilibrium in his callous environment. Hoping to escape his criminal background and the demons from his bad dreams, he plans one last raid. This robbery, which is a success for only a few of those involved, brings the protagonists together and triggers a series of tragic events, which draw the two ever deeper into conflicts with themselves and their enemies. In the course of these events each of them takes a melancholy look at his wasted life of crime, whose glamorous facade is crumbling in front of the viewer's eyes. In an increasingly violent environment the two protagonists are relentlessly drawn into a vortex of despair, disillusionment, and hopelessness. THAW does not provide much detail on the characters' backgrounds and remains deliberately vague. The film delineates the various features of the protagonists' characters matterof- factly and emphasizes the immediate conflicts with their respective environments, and the roles they have to play. The complexity of their characters is gradually laid open in the course of the film. The change in atmosphere from stillness to pinpointed eruptions of brutality has a both disturbing and surprising effect. In deliberate contrast to classic gangster movies THAW refuses to depict the world of criminals in black and white and leaves plenty of room for speculation.
Click here for more information: www.tauwetter-film.de
Screening: Saturday, November 12, 9:00PM at 217 East 42nd Street Reserve Seats