Karger

(Karger)

Germany, 2007, 90 min, color
In German; English subtitles
Credits:
Director
Themes & Genres:

Synopsis

At thirty-something, Karger is a steelworker who has never left the little town between Leipzig and Dresden where he was born. His life has been monotonous and predictable. He reaches a turning point when he divorces his wife, whom he has loved since childhood, and his father passes away. Ephemeral solutions are short-lived, however. Karger feels an increasing need to change his life, but the more he tries, the less he succeeds.

 

Hauck’s feature film debut was awarded at the 2007 Max Ophüls Film Festival and was selected to compete at the 2007 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Press comments

"Karger … is reminiscent of New German cinema in the 1970s. It follows the same documentary-like format that characterizes Bertolt Brecht, with the same bleak atmosphere." –Massoud Mehrabi, film journalist 

 

"Hauck uses a detached documentary style to probe the human condition under particular circumstances." –Petra Wehle, 2008 Program, Berlin & Beyond series, San Francisco

 

"This film plays with the aesthetic known from old DEFA films." –Die Zeit 

 

"A little highlight of German cinema." –Hannelore Heider, Deutschlandradio

 

"Karger reveals a discreet and unspectacular inventory of life – which makes the film spectacular for the way its scenes flow so harmoniously." –2008 achtung berlin, new Berlin film award

 

"Images by Patrick Orths, who used a digital camera, are reminiscent of other films by young Berlin directors….  Even the steel mill, with its old and almost surreally massive machines, looks beautiful and has a sense of mystery." –Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

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