Andrea gets divorced ©Majestic Filmproduktion Andrea (great as always: Birgit Minichmayr) would actually like to get a divorce. But before she can fulfil this wish, the provincial policewoman from Lower Austria makes herself a widow. By chance. Car accident. But why does the local and highly depressed religious teacher Franz take all the blame? Andrea sets out on the trail.

Even the title of the drama "Andrea gets divorced", co-written, directed and acted by cabaret artist Josef Hader, is a hair-raisingly darkly humorous understatement. The rest is in no way inferior.

Josef Hader
After "Wilde Maus" (2017), "Andrea" is the second directorial work by the Upper Austrian born in 1962. In his home country, Josef Hader is considered the most successful cabaret artist with programmes such as "Im Keller" (1993), "Hader muss weg" (2003) and the best-of revue "Hader spielt Hader". Cinema audiences know him above all as the sometimes more, sometimes less criminal Simon Brenner in "Komm, Süßer Tod" (2000), "Silentium" (2004), "Der Knochenmann" (2009) and "Das ewige Leben" (2015). Hader was nominated for the European Film Award as Stefan Zweig in Maria Schrader's "Vor der Morgenröte" (2016).

Die © Wild Bunch Germany "You have to do what your heart wants!" The girl in the opening credits leaves no room for contradiction. The Lunies family adheres strictly to this: father Gert walks around without trousers, son Tom conducts large orchestras, daughter Ellen indulges in intoxication and mother Lissy prepares for her death from cancer. In three hours of "dying", people are born, love, suffer, negotiate, settle accounts and, of course, die. For all the given tragedy, author and director Matthias Glasner has fully utilised the means of comedy, from subtly verbal to slapstick, everything is included.

Matthias Glasner
The little girl at the start of "Sterben" is Matthias Glasner's own daughter. The life and death of the Lunies family is inspired by Glasner's own family. This is part of the programme for the director, who was born in Hamburg in 1965 and always writes the screenplays for his feature films himself. Glasner deals with emotional issues that concern him ("Der freie Wille" (2006), "Gnade" (2012)) or life situations such as in "Die Mediocren" (1995) and now "Sterben", for which he received the Silver Bear for the screenplay at this year's Berlin Film Festival.

DVD The Long Shadow © Polyband There are several British series about the Yorkshire Ripper, who killed thirteen women between 1975 and 1980 and assaulted several and left them with life-threatening injuries. Some also mention the police's miscarriages of justice. The seven-part programme on British broadcaster ITV, "The Long Shadow", focuses on the victims and their families. The fact that some of the women attacked came from the red-light district brought all the victims into disrepute in the media.
Director Lewis Arnold has made a name for himself with the production of psychologically dense true crime dramas such as "Des" (2020) and "Sherwood" (2021). "The Long Shadow" seamlessly joins this ranks.

Streaming Wikiflix ©Edda Bauer Fans of silent film classics in particular now have reason to rejoice: Wikimedia has launched Wikiflix, a collection of films whose copyrights have expired. Among them is not only Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (1927), the classic par excellence (even in the 153-minute reconstructed version), but also the colour film "Charade" (1963) with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. A knowledge of English is necessary, however, both for the subtitles of Russian and Indian films and for the information on the actors and filmmakers.