The film is split into two strands, the first follows a kriminalinspektor, a zombie cop who starts a new investigation despite a suspension, and the second a project manager at an automotive engineering firm who spontaneously decides that doing what's expected of one in life, and doing it successfully, isn't really what he's interested in.
The film has a couple of moments with genuine tooth and claw but lapses into bathos or dramatic irony depending on your point of view. The film is enjoyable for the humour of Herr Breser's "falling down", the inventiveness of the credits sequence, the often really great framing/compositional work, and there's a really memorable visual effect two thirds of the way into the movie going down an escalator into a subway station. The movie seems to often satirize American stories / tropes, showing how ridiculous Falling Down, Pulp Fiction and Fight Club are as ideas, particularly when transplanted to Austria.
A bourgeois malaise is evident, a teenaged delinquent involves herself in happy slapping, despite coming from an affluent and loving home, whilst Breser introduces himself by essentially reading out a curriculum vitae, becoming aware too late, that life is not primarily about filling out that particular piece of paper, it's experiential, it's spiritual, it's emotional. The choice of employment is particularly relevant as it embodies "success" in that part of the world.
The title of the movie is unusual (also chosen recently by another Austrian, Ulrich Seidl), it refers to the childhood holiday destination of Breser, and is used as a metaphor, a place where Breser believes the exoticness of Africa can be seen if you try hard enough.
The film has a couple of moments with genuine tooth and claw but lapses into bathos or dramatic irony depending on your point of view. The film is enjoyable for the humour of Herr Breser's "falling down", the inventiveness of the credits sequence, the often really great framing/compositional work, and there's a really memorable visual effect two thirds of the way into the movie going down an escalator into a subway station. The movie seems to often satirize American stories / tropes, showing how ridiculous Falling Down, Pulp Fiction and Fight Club are as ideas, particularly when transplanted to Austria.
A bourgeois malaise is evident, a teenaged delinquent involves herself in happy slapping, despite coming from an affluent and loving home, whilst Breser introduces himself by essentially reading out a curriculum vitae, becoming aware too late, that life is not primarily about filling out that particular piece of paper, it's experiential, it's spiritual, it's emotional. The choice of employment is particularly relevant as it embodies "success" in that part of the world.
The title of the movie is unusual (also chosen recently by another Austrian, Ulrich Seidl), it refers to the childhood holiday destination of Breser, and is used as a metaphor, a place where Breser believes the exoticness of Africa can be seen if you try hard enough.