Pretty Good

Absolutely Brilliant!

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

What a wonderful, powerful and unforgettable drama from Austria and taking place in the Turkish community, important in this country, as the Algerian one is in France. An ex con is released after ten years in the joint and finds a job to survive whilst on probation. He has a fifteen years old son who is involved with petty hoods whom he owes much money. Dangerous hood who threat the youngster... You have here a very poignant and so realistic drama, where performances seem at their peak. Gripping sequences that grab you like hell, especially the ones between the lead and his son or his mother and brother, who rejects him. The lead character is absolutely not a hero here, far from that. Don't expect any hope here, even if the very ending may be lightly open...

I saw this film at the Film Fest Ghent 2014, where it was programmed as part of the Global Cinema section. We follow two people involved in criminal activities (one ex-con, one upcoming), and see from very nearby how difficult it can be to sever yourself from non-honest ways of earning money. The ex-con makes every attempt to stay clean. The upcoming criminal, on the other hand, gets deeper and deeper in trouble with towering debts while he invests all his money in making a demo tape, eventually seeing no way out other than a criminal path forward. Believable protagonists all around. Also believable side roles that add enough color to the proceedings to keep our interest.