Houston

True, Clemens Trunschka does wear an elegant, well-fitting suit to work, but otherwise he’s pretty much a drunken loser who finds a bottle better company than his wife. Yet he jumps at the chance to fly to the United States to headhunt an American CEO for a German company – and the chase is on. But the adventure ends up heading in a completely different direction than Clemens had hoped, and a feeling grows that the protagonist would be far happier someplace else. Sterility becomes a stylistic principle and the dominant mood. Masterfully filmed with precise attention to detail, the movie makes skillful use of ironic mockery to observe the hero’s efforts, but it also employs cool analytical observation of the type represented in German cinema by Christian Petzold. Günther, too, keeps his foot on the emotional brakes, resulting in a film that engulfs the viewer in an atmosphere of sustained tension. In the end, in a world of futile toil, lurking beneath all the great assignments and business ambitions, it is possible to find hope. But what does it consist of? (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)