 |
HERBERTHerbert is strong. All his life, it was mainly his physique, his strong presence and unyielding strength that characterized him and made him a successful boxer, the so-called „Pride of Leipzig“. But his pride has long faded… Now, Herbert earns his pay working as a debt collector for a dodgy guy. At least his boxing skills live on through Eddy, an Amateur Herbert coaches, his protégé. But something doesn’t seem quite right with Herbert. He starts feeling weaker and weaker, is plagued by cramps until he finally collapses. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS was a ubiquitous topic in the summer of 2014. Hundreds of thousands of people tipped buckets of iced water over their heads. Due to all the fun involved, the actual cause of the matter – drawing attention to a irreversible, incurable and merciless illness by imitating the pain it entails for just a second – was occasionally forgotten. So back to Herbert, the strong, mighty main character of Thomas Stubers feature film debut, who loses everything that ever defined him at a terrifying speed. He loses himself and we look on as the illness weakens him, paralyses him and steals the control over his body away from him, bit by bit. He is left with only little time to bring his affairs in order, to make peace with his daughter Sandra and granddaughter Ronja and take care of his relationship with his lover Maria. Actor Peter Kurth not only plays Herbert – he really IS Herbert. He lets us experience the life and suffering. Death is inevitable for him and simply by knowing this, we can join him on his journey from and to himself. Each minute, each second, intensely, finally, to the end, the salvation from the pain and from the shackle of the unsaid. A moving and grounding film. A truly good German film. |
