Next Door

Berlin, the Prenzlauer Berg district. When this summer day is over, nothing will ever be the same again. Only Daniel doesn’t know that yet. The protagonist of this tragicomic scenario is as unsuspecting as he is accustomed to success. His loft apartment is stylish and so is his wife, and nanny has the children under control. Everything is tip-top, bilingual and ready for him to jet off to an audition where a role in a superhero film awaits the celebrated German-Spanish actor. Popping into the bar on the corner, he finds Bruno sitting there. As transpires by the minute, Bruno has been waiting for this moment for a long time. And so this eternally overlooked man – one of reunification’s losers and a victim of the gentrification of what was once East Berlin – takes his revenge. With Daniel as his target. Brühl’s directorial debut is spot-on. Based on an idea by the director and written by Daniel Kehlmann, the script combines razor-sharp dialogue with oddball bar-room banter. Pitting global versus local, and hand-luggage-only travel versus eavesdropping from the courtyard window, the film celebrates this intimate corner-pub chamber piece as if it were a genre of its own. The character psychology is perfect and the verbal spats never-ending. Peter Kurth is especially nasty as Bruno, and Daniel Brühl is deliciously self-deprecating. (Berlinale)