PRESS REVIEWS
COEXIST
FOCUS
“Photo star of the moment: Franziska Stünkel. Her photographs are frighteningly en voguel: Franziska Stünkel shows life as it is behind glass – isolated and contactless, as many people currently feel. The German artist has been travelling the world for over ten years for her photo project “Coexist”, capturing reflections on shop window glass with her small Leica camera…..”
NTV
“She is a seeker, but doesn’t seem driven, more at peace with herself. Perhaps Franziska Stünkel has already arrived, although she always seems to be on the move. She has been on tour for seven months, living out of a suitcase. She is an artist and director….”
FAZ
“And now Franziska Stünkel, film director, photo artist and a modern romantic, as one may assume in view of her reflections, which is to be understood in both senses of the word. She calls her series of images of reflections, taken while travelling on four continents, “Coexist”, but is much less interested in the essence of a place than in the motif of superimposition, with which she unhinges the world and at the same time asks whether there is more to it than just the visible…”
MAX MAGAZIN
“The actions and thoughts of each individual have an impact on everyone and everything,” states photo artist and director Franziska Stünkel, 46. In the beautiful art book Coexist (published by Kehrer Verlag), she provides artistic proof of this. But her enormous creative power is not only evident there….”
HAMURGER ABENDBLATT
“And yet her pictures are much more than just street life photography…”
MONOPOL KUNSTMAGAZIN
“The photographic works from Shanghai are reminiscent of films by Wong Kar-Wai. Stünkel’s narrative talent is an art of omission and allusion. Her camera looks at people who turn their backs on the viewer. What are these people waiting for? What do they long for? Are they dreaming?”
LEICA CAMERA BLOG
“The visual worlds of Leica photographer Franziska Stünkel are not only multi-layered and complex, but also highly impressive and demand a precise exploration of the unique moods of the respective places. Her reflections of the world’s metropolises tell of the global coexistence of human life in their unique condensation.”
LFI MAGAZINE
“The large-format Diasec prints, show mesmerizing reflections captured while Stünkel was travelling in Asia, Africa, Europe and America. Using her M9, the photographer repeatedly manages to produce surprising imagery that captures the atmosphere of each particular location. The pictures layer colours, shapes and reflections of light caught in the fleeting moments of everyday life, producing photographically recognisable realities. Stünkel avoids any type of digital post-production: she is only interested in authentic moments on the street. Finally however, it is the images seen in their original format that lead the viewer to a truly attractive impression of the world. While reproducing reality, the motifs are also visual, artistic constructions.”
WIDEWALL MAGAZINE
“Franziska Stünkel is a photo artist and is quite a storyteller. She travels around the world with her camera looking for still authentic places. Wherever she is, Africa, Asia, Amercia or Europe, she catches fragile motives in the shop window reflections. Stünkel brings two parallel worlds together, sometimes so different that one could hardly imagine that there is only a thin window glass between them. Another paradoxical thing about Franziska Stünkel’s art is her ability to transform highly figurative motives into abstraction. Material objects sometimes lose their materiality in her works and tend to become symbols. Through window reflection, some objects are deprived of their original context and become isolated. There is something very ephemeral in her artwork; colors and structures receive transparency through the reflection and symbolize the fragility of our life.The dimensions and quality of her artwork allow a viewer to enter another reality. No matter on which continent Stünkel creates the image, she manages to depict something very familiar and very estranged at the same time. Her photography is candid photography of life and our surroundings…”
The Last Execution / Nahschuss (International Press Reviews)
Glam Adelaide, Australia
“Stünkel has created a film that is moving, suspenseful, and intense. An intelligent screenplay forms the foundation of a masterful piece of cinematic work. (…) Lars Eidinger gives a powerhouse performance as Walter. His vulnerability and inner conflict jump viscerally from the screen. Particularly powerful are the scenes between him and Luise Heyer as Corina Walter, his wife. Stünkel’s direction gives her actors plenty of room in which to occupy the screen space and take their time, all adding to authentic dramatic tension. The entire cast is outstanding, including Devid Striesow, Christian Redl, and Hedi Kriegeskotte. Every characer, no matter how briefly on screen, adds to the depth and authenticity of the work. (…) The Last Execution is not an easy watch. Nor is it meant to be. It is both an historic re-examination, and a very contemporary deconstruction of the role of the State in private lives. And despite the somewhat depressing subject-matter, it is also a gripping and exciting piece of cinema.”
ATENA3 NOTICIAS TV, SPAIN
“El espía honesto (The Last Execution) recalls The Lives of Others with a tough story about maintaining dignity in the worst of circumstances.”
SOUNDVENUE, DENMARK
„Effectively claustrophobic.“
“Well composed and well played.”
KULTURINFORMATION, DENMARK
“Lars Eidinger is unashamedly unsurpassed.”
“Incomprehensibly empathetic.”
WEEKENDAVISEN, DENMARK
“There is real pain in the depiction of the broken love.”
“Up close, a monument – in the sense of shame support – over a form of government that has distorted the values it represents”
INFORMATION, DENMARK
“Uses its cinematic means gifted and precise, and of these means Lars Eidinger’s expressive face is the most impressive.”
POLITIKEN, DENMARK
“An unromantic spy film with a brilliant performance by Lars Eidinger as the man who fell victim to his own conscience.”
KRISTELIGT DAGBLAD, DENMARK
“Fortunately, there were people like Franz Walther who could feel their conscience, but they paid the highest price. The film about him will light a candle in the world.”
“The film is a strong warning that a society can develop where one’s sweet neighbor can become one’s executioner.”
EKKO, DENMARK
“Exciting and penetrating.”
“Like a dogma film about an ethical dogma.”
JP, DENMARK
“Fantastic acting performance.”
“If you like to spend time reminding your fellow human beings of democratic ideals and historical horrors, ‘På Nært Hold’ will be something for you.”
MOOVY, DENMARK
“Intensely touching.”
CPH CULTURE, DENMARK
“If you are one of those who enjoyed the Oscar-winning German film” The Lives of Others “from 2006, you should not hesitate to buy a ticket for På Nært Hold.”
Cinenews Belgium
“Director and screenwriter Franziska Stünkel delivers an obsessive and intense film about moral dilemmas. A gripping historical drama.”
La Libre Belgium
“An icy dive into the paranoid hell of the Stasi.”
POSTIMEES, ESTLAND
“One of the highlights of the film festival was The Last Execution, the dramatic story of an East German scientist who worked for the State Security.”
Les Grignoux, Belgium
“A haunting history lesson. Like the recently released Leave No Traces, The Last Execution belongs to the category of historical films that brilliantly document the darker sides of recent European history, making us forget the generational distance against our will.”
Madame fait son Cinéma Belgium
“A feature film that you should watch in order to perceive the great story in a sensitive and tangible way.”
Madame fait son Cinéma Belgium
“The Last Execution is a terrifying thriller about life in a totalitarian regime after the Second World War.”
La Libre Belgium
“A man in free fall, played by the convincing Lars Eidinger.”
L’avenir Belgium
“In the mode of an intimate thriller, The Last Execution draws us into the maelstrom of this good guy’s moral questions.”
Humo
“Stump in the stomach area.”
Der Standard
“Eidinger’s raw performance draws the viewer impressively into Franz’s nightmare.”
DN Dagens Nyheter, Schweden
“Heartbreaking. A time machine back to the surveillance tyranny of the GDR.”
DN Dagens Nyheter, Schweden
“The greatness depends on Eidinger’s strong and credible interpretation of the role.”
Aftonbladet, Schweden
“Skillful portrayal of life in a dictatorship.”
Kommunalarbetaren, Schweden
“Exciting thriller with a real background.”
Kinocritics, Sweden
“Excellently staged and emotionally charged.”
Weekend Notes, Sweden
“Exciting and soberly told.”
CIneeuropa, Ştefan Dobroiu, Rumänien
„What can possibly entice someone to collaborate with the much-feared Stasi? And with what personal consequences? The second feature by German director Franziska Stünkel, The Last Execution (Nahschuss) which was shown in the main competition of the Transilvania International Film Festival, delves directly to the heart of these questions, showing how easily a repressive regime can crush a person’s soul. Here is what the director has to say about just how true her fictional film is and how we should never be allowed to forget the mistakes of the past…. read more.“
Vineta
Spiegel Online
“Vineta impressively shows how the social demand for more makes us all the hunted.”
Für Sie
“Brilliantly staged.”
Stern
“Distressing suspense right to the end. With Vineta, young director Franziska Stünkel has created a thrilling drama about the highly topical subject of workaholism. A cinematic stroke of luck, with a great cast featuring top-class actors such as Peter Lohmeyer and Ulrich Matthes. Almost too good for the screen!”
TV Digital
“A claustrophobic chamber play with very strong, almost surreal images.”
taz
“A strongly cast, strongly acted and strongly disturbing actors’ festival.”
Westdeutsche Allgemeine
“Franziska Stünkel – who, please, is that? It’s a name worth remembering. We’ll be reading it more often. The 35-year-old director did her job brilliantly: in her first feature film “Vineta”, she teased the best performance out of her star Peter Lohmeyer. The 47-year-old confessional Ruhri never seemed as rushed as he did in the gripping cinema co-production for the first German TV channel, which thrilled arthouse audiences in the spring of this year.”
Westdeutsche Allgemeine
“Stünkel and Lohmeyer modeled the character of the perfectionist genius so lovingly that they endowed the man with clearly defined quirks. In this psycho-drama, Lohmeyer eats nothing but walnuts, which he bangs nervously against each other as if he wanted to play flamenco. In short: Lohmeyer’s “Miracle of Bern” was followed by the miracle of Vineta. With one difference: Bern was clean craftsmanship, Vineta is art.”
Hörzu
“Perfectly crafted, the artistic film inspires with interesting, surreal images, metaphors and a menacing build-up of atmosphere.”
TV Spielfilm
“Social criticism in stage style: excitingly realized.”
BR Online
“The pink of the magnificent birds and the dark red of the bleeding eccentric – these shades define a remarkable debut film that deserves attention not only from a socio-political point of view, but also in terms of its visual realization with distinctive exotic imagery.”
BR Online
It seems unstoppable that the work-obsessed are gradually destroying themselves under pressure and stress. However, the astonishing and well thought-out resolution of this story can hardly be guessed.
taz
“In the midst of all the discussion about unemployment, “Vineta” shows in an impressive and lasting way what the world of work can do to people – and what work addicts do to themselves and others.”
taz
“The way Peter Lohmeyer plays this dyer, feverish, agitated, without emotion in his face, rushed, sleepless, is one of the many images that remain etched in the memory.”
Westfalenpost
“Franziska Stünkel has staged her oppressive chamber play about being driven in a mysterious, fascinating and surreal way. In addition to the top-class cast – Matthias Brandt and Herbert Fux in his last role after Lohmeyer and Matthes – the film’s strength lies in its visual effects: There are cross-fades with recurring scenes, for example, and a clock is constantly faded in, running and running and running. Director Stünkel plays with the viewer by constantly laying new tracks. An impressive debut film about the greed for more.”
BR
“Vineta is also a wonderful ensemble film that rewards first-class actors with wonderful roles, above all Peter Lohmeyer – as a manic creative with beads of sweat on his bald head, like a steam boiler about to explode – and Ulrich Matthes as a diabolically smug project manager who gets to the heart of the phenomenon of ‘time infarction’ with razor-sharp precision: ‘There’s an ice age out there, workaholism is destroying social ties and families’. When the workaholics are not poring over their designs, they run through the snow and build snowmen. Can they still be helped? The flocks of flamingos storm out of the cage at the end, flapping their wings. And yet Vineta, pulsating with strong Kafkaesque and Dürrenmattian atmospheric images, comes to a clearly pessimistic conclusion.”
Stern
“Vineta is a real stroke of luck for moviegoers who want more than run-of-the-mill fare with popcorn and cola. When Franziska Stünkel enters the race, there are no half measures. Her claim is quality. Stünkel listens carefully, takes a close look at the world and absorbs everything as if she were nothing but a big sponge. If you squeeze out this sponge, images are flushed out that are almost too beautiful in their first-class aesthetics for the brief moments on the screen. You wish you had a stop button, you would love to stop them, the visual compositions, marvel at them like paintings in a museum. Seeing becomes a sensual experience, for example when pale faces and the blue of the computer screen blur into one another.”
Filmstarts. de
“With his feverish performance, Peter Lohmeyer succeeds in impressively embodying the restless and restless dyer.”
Münchener Abendzeitung
“A vision of magical absurdity in a hermetically sealed landscape, with the irritations of secret service horror and industrial espionage, exciting and threatening.”
Deutsche Welle TV
“A sensual feature film debut about intoxication, addiction and loneliness in a workaholic world.”
Filmecho / Filmwoche
“The brilliantly photographed feature film “Vineta” (camera: Carsten Thiele) is based on the award-winning four-act play “Republik Vineta” by German star playwright Moritz Rinke. The main themes of his play are aggression and workaholism, but also the fear of losing control and reality. Franziska Stünkel has turned it into a melancholy and metaphor-rich study of a man’s search for meaning who, as a workaholic, only wants the best for those around him, but in doing so catapults himself more and more into a state of mental collapse. There are only two things left for the astonished moviegoer to do: sit back and relax in the movie theater (in contrast to the crazy actors) and enjoy the fact that there are still true all-round artists among young German filmmakers.”
Deutschlandradio Kultur
“With an impressive visual language, Vineta creates a dark poetic parable of a society whose elites have long since only functioned for themselves.”
Berliner Zeitung
“Vineta, the film, wins us over with its wonderfully absurd cast of characters and its suggestive circling around highly charged social issues. After Nicolette Krebitz’s “Das Herz ist ein dunkler Wald”, German film once again ventures into the realm between fantasy and reality, and that can only be welcomed.”
Deutschlandradio Kultur
“The film cleverly plays with the levels of reality, with flashbacks, nightmare sequences and delusions. The plot constantly surprises with new twists and turns: what seems so important becomes unimportant, the powerful man becomes a patient. A surprising and multi-layered feature film debut.”
Hamburger Abendblatt
“Vineta paints the psychogram of a rushed man – entertaining and stimulating.”
Hamburger Abendblatt
“A subject that is not often found in the cinema.”
Filmdienst
“The director develops an appealing picture puzzle of associative visual inserts, colorful alienations and dark (cinematic) symbols, into which impressions of a magnificent flock of red flamingos are repeatedly inserted. This is as atmospherically melancholic as it is symbolically suggestive and, in harmony with the good actors, condenses into an exciting “art film” with a consistently surprising dramaturgy that is thematically reminiscent of David Fincher’s thriller “The Game” – although “Vineta” remains pleasantly more open, less unambiguous and more skeptical at the end.”
taz
“You can tell from her film that she is an attentive observer.”
Movie God. de
“An appealing package of good actors, good direction and, last but not least, a very successful script.”
Badische Zeitung
“The gripping film scores with brilliant acting performances, an incredible story, strong images and great effects.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung
“But what could happen to workaholics like architect Sebastian Färber who are in danger of falling off the wagon? In “Vineta”, he ends up in a remote villa and works on an even bigger project – to develop a city that can be monitored without gaps. But it’s all just a fake, devised by a more or less insane doctor, a distant descendant of Dr. Caligari, who must have used “Metropolis” as a model for his project. Does this close a circle? We also had a strong cinema of fears in Germany in the twenties.”
HAZ
“But Stünkel tackles issues that concern us all. Vineta is entertainment cinema for the discerning.”
Nordwest Zeitung
“Vineta shows that young German filmmakers don’t have to hide even today.”
Rhein Main Presse
“Together with top-class actors such as Peter Lohmeyer and Ullrich Matthes, Franziska Stünkel has created an impressive adaptation of Moritz Rinke’s award-winning play “Republik Vineta” that is well worth seeing.”
Stadtkind
“A successful feature film debut, an intense Peter Lohmeyer, a movie that demands a lot. Definitely not to be missed!”
Berliner Zeitung
“Vineta wins us over with its wonderfully absurd cast of characters and its suggestive circling around highly explosive and social themes. After Nicolette Krebitz’s ‘Das Herz ist ein dunkler Wald’, the German film once again ventures into the realm between fantasy and reality, and that can only be welcomed.”
Rheinische Post
“The award-winning play “Republik Vineta” by Moritz Rinke was the basis for this film, which is well worth seeing.”
Kino-zeit. de
“Too much work and workaholism, on the other hand, are rarely addressed in cinema, let alone debated. Up-and-coming director Franziska Stünkel has taken up this topic and made the magnificent film Vineta.”
Kino-zeit. de
“The workaholic architect Färber is wonderfully embodied by Peter Lohmeyer, who seems to have the role tailor-made for him. A great ensemble of actors was also cast for the other characters. The director has found exactly the right material for such a topical subject and staged it in such an exciting way that the viewer waits curiously for the resolution right to the end. It is a very mature film that Franziska Stünkel presents to us and is particularly impressive because it is her first feature-length film.”
Main Post
“Vineta – based on a play by Moritz Rinke – combines suspense with social criticism.”
Main Post
BonBon
Jury des Williamsburg Brooklyn Film Festival NY
Best New Director Award
The panel of judges awarded Franziska Stünkel for her exceptional sense of style and defined the film as a remarkable blend of design, photography and acting.Following the US premiere screening of BonBon several distribution companies and festivals in the US have approached Franziska Stünkel.
Jury Up & Coming Filmfestival
Drehbuch Award
(…) Visual language and visual wit, coloring, editing, scenic dramaturgy and dialogue intertwine to create a fast-paced whole. The lightness and esprit with which “BonBon” entertains its viewers should not obscure the wealth of ideas that have gone into every aspect of the design. Self-confident and unusual, “BonBon” adapts unfamiliar and unusual visual forms (still image sequences, ironized advertising aesthetics) for the feature film and creates a very modern style of cinematic storytelling. It is particularly noteworthy that “BonBon” consistently develops its own visual language, genuinely appropriate to its subject matter, in order to define the characters, the atmosphere and the style of the film, instead of resorting to comfortable conventional cinematic solutions.
Nahschuss (German Press Reviews)
CINEMA
“Lars Eidinger shines.”
“A gripping, masterfully staged political drama that sheds light on a dark chapter of GDR history.”
EPD FILM
“One of the best films at the Munich Film Festival.”
“Perfectly equipped movie”
“With The Last Execution, Franziska Stünkel has produced a haunting and impressive debut film that won the New Talent Award for Best Screenplay at the Munich Film Festival. She has her quite prominent actors well under control, even Lars Eidinger has the necessary understatement – an ideal cast for the role, by the way.”
BR KINOKINO
“Lars Eidinger plays uniquely well.”
“Dialogs and scenes that hit the heart. The Last Execution shows the mechanism of power of dictatorship: credible, human and stirringly acted.”
HAMBURGER ABENDBLATT / BERLINER MORGENPOST
“Has a powerful pair of actors in Lars Eidinger and Luise Heyer”
“Eidinger turns it into a painful performance of increasing petrification that gets under your skin and is sometimes almost unbearable.”
NDR INFO
“A nerve-wracking thriller whose pull you can’t escape”
“Lars Eidinger and Devid Striesow are simply brilliant”
“Multi-layered picture of recent post-war history”
“Overwhelming movie”
ANTENA 3 TV, SPANIEN
“Being an agent of the sinister communist German secret service is difficult if you have principles and integrity. The Honest Spy is reminiscent to The Lives of Others with a tough story about maintaining dignity in the worst of circumstances.”
BLICKPUNKT FILM
“The way the director and her brilliant lead actor Lars Eidinger illuminate the merciless mechanisms of an unjust regime is filmmaking at the very highest level.”
FILMSTARTS
“A dark chapter of German history, oppressively and highly suspensefully staged as a mixture of political drama and psychological thriller – a far cry from any didactic cinema. Lars Eidinger and Devid Striesow embody the struggle between man and an inhuman system, bringing the abstract horror of the GDR surveillance apparatus so close that it hurts.”
POSTIMEES, ESTLAND
“One of the highlights of the film festival was “The Last Execution”, the dramatic story of an East German scientist who worked for the Natianal Security and was shot for “planned high treason”.”
GALA
“Worth seeing”
BRIGITTE
“Breathtaking, often disturbing drama by Franziska Stünkel.”
“Lars Eidinger is just as great as a man in a downward spiral as Luise Heyer as his girlfriend and Devid Striesow as a charming, manipulative Stasi officer.”
ABENDZEITUNG
“In a very quiet and deeply touching way, you can see here how a person who has become aware of his own humanity too late breaks down.”
“Intensive”
“Above all, this is due to the breathtaking performance by Lars Eidinger, who gives one of his strongest performances here”
“Mercilessly harrowing, but therefore also a great movie”
HÖRZU / GONG / BILD UND FUNK
“Gripping fight for survival in an unjust system”
NDR
“The whole horror of a system in which everyone is trapped and which allows no arbitrary escape is sometimes shown in this political drama like a nerve-wracking thriller whose pull you can’t escape. Lars Eidinger and Devid Striesow embody these opposing poles with sheer genius, both delivering a literally bloodcurdling performance. Director and screenwriter Franziska Stünkel is also a photographer and has dealt with reflections in shop windows in her illustrated book “Coexist”. She continues this perspective in a number of key scenes in the film, providing a visually and emotionally multi-layered picture of recent German post-war history.”
FILMDIENST
“The fact that the director has succeeded in creating an unusually comprehensive yet factual portrayal of the East German regime elevates “Nahschuss” to a high rank as a feature film about German history.”
WDR
With The Last Execution, filmmaker and photo artist Franziska Stünkel succeeds in creating a gripping drama about the death penalty in the GDR that dissects the mechanisms of the unjust system. Lars Eidinger, who can be seen in every scene of the film, mercilessly draws the viewer into the inner life of the man: from a successful scientist in love to a broken man. An atmospherically powerful, magnificently acted piece of German history. A movie that stays with you for a long time.”
HAMBURGER MORGENPOST / LEIPZIGER VOLKSZEITUNG
“Franziska Stünkel resists […] any temptation to romanticize”
“Lars Eidinger succeeds in making his own person disappear behind the character.”
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG
“Excellently equipped”
“For Lars Eidinger, this Franz Walter is a parade role”
“On the other hand, Stünkel achieves an exciting differentiation with her main character”
“Wanting for or having to – the fact that it is almost impossible to tell the difference until the end is the great strength of THE LAST EXECUTION.”
GALORE MAGAZIN
“Franziska Stünkel chose haunting, poetic images to tell this dark chapter of German history. The film draws its tension from its quietness. Lars Eidinger in the leading role also plays quietly and therefore all the more important.”
NÜRNBERGER NACHRICHTEN
“Suction effect”
“Great: Luise Heyer”
“Great cast with Lars Eidinger”
“60 years after the Wall was built, Stünkel is not only doing educational work […] She is also playing the card of man against power. In doing so, she has created a visually stylish, well-functioning feature film in dark colors.”
“Shaken and painful”
“The Last Execution is an oppressive movie, but absolutely worth seeing.”
RP Rheinische Post
“Stünkel also shows this type of execution in its shocking casualness without any dramatic amplification effects. Her film approaches one of the darkest chapters of GDR history in a way that is as matter-of-fact as it is intimate. (…) But here Eidinger practises humble understatement, with which he successfully captures the audience’s attention for his morally contradictory character. In a very quiet and deeply touching way, we see here how a person who has become aware of his own humanity too late breaks down.”
KÖLNER EXPRESS
“Haunting and harrowing drama”
“Sensitive direction and outstanding ensemble”
“Heyer is in no way inferior to Eidinger with her intense acting”
ZDF MORGENMAGAZIN
“Great intensity from Lars Eidinger”
“Grandiose in the leading role: Lars Eidinger”
“Acting tour de France”
“Great intensity”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a movie that was so well equipped.”
HANNOVERSCHE ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG
“Impressive: Lars Eidinger”
“Fascinating portrait of a regime”
“Luise Heyer plays with nuance and care”
KUNST UND FILM
“This film surpasses the thematically similar Oscar winner “The Lives of Others.”
RADIO EINS
“Very depressing and haunting feature film.”
“It creates a very strong emotional impact that you can’t escape.”
RBB ZIBB
“Simply great: Luise Heyer and Lars Eidinger”
“Impressive movie”
“A celebration for the actor Lars Eidinger”
ROLLING STONE
“Impressive pictures”
“A movie worth seeing”
TV SPIELFILM / TV TODAY
“Lars Eidinger shines”
“Poignant portrait”
TAZ
“Lars Eidinger’s acting is so intense and complex that in some moments his face tells the whole story.”
“An intimate character study with a real background.”
WDR3 KULTUR AM MITTAG
“Atmospherically strong and superbly acted: “Nahschuss” is a gripping drama about the death penalty in the GDR.”
MAX MAGAZIN
“Franz Walter is played by Lars Eidinger. Or rather loved. Intense, full of emotion in every scene of the film, carried by great interaction with Luise Heyer as his wife and David Striesow as a Stasi officer.”
“A team full of illustrious names: Victoria Trauttmansdorf, Paula Kalenberg, Christian Redl, Peter Lohmeyer, Kai Wiesinger, Peter Benedict and Moritz Jahn and other familiar faces who, alongside the scriptwriter’s detailed storytelling, grab you as a viewer and never let go.”
“I learned more about the people and their sensitivities through the film than in the 15 years of private German-German unity before. It’s more than just the “lives of others”, “The Last Execution” has a message that can be transferred to the present day.”
MDR THÜRINGEN JOURNAL
“Great cinema of emotions”
POSTIMEES, ESTLAND
“One of the highlights of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.”
BR KINO KOMPAKT
“Strong”
BR RUNDSCHAU
“Distressing”
SWR
“The Last Execution” is a quiet, dense intimate play about the inner mechanisms of an unjust state, which vividly demonstrates: Everyone who is at its mercy becomes a victim, including the perpetrators.”
FILMBEWERTUNGSSTELLE FBW
PRÄDIKAT BESONDERS WERTVOLL
“Lars Eidinger embodies his despair, loneliness and self-doubt about his surroundings and everything he had believed in up to that point in a tour de force of acting with the greatest bravura and casts a spell over the audience. In doing so, he brings us closer to a character who is both perpetrator and victim at the same time and for whom we would otherwise not have had too much sympathy. Above all, however, a great compliment is due to the author and director Franziska Stünkel, who with great courage and admirable consistency leaves all narrative conventions and certainties behind in order to reveal, right up to the terrifying conclusion, a political system that will stop at nothing for self-preservation and even eats its own children. THE LAST EXECUTION is a movie that grabs you and doesn’t let go for a long time.”
BADISCHE ZEITUNG
“Brilliant Lars Eidinger”
“A requiem for humanity.”
“Luise Heyer and Devid Striesow embody their roles in a nuanced and convincing way, but Lars Eidinger […] gives a terrific performance here.”
“A political thriller as a psychological drama of high emotional density that goes far beyond a mere historical biopic: THE LAST EXECUTION is a highlight of this summer of cinema, which is certainly not lacking in sensations.”
BIOGRAPH
“Franziska Stünkel has created an oppressive drama here. Because she knows how to focus on the contrast and conflict between loyalty to the system and one’s own conscience. The result is a film that radically tells of life in an unjust system and how the individual perishes in it.”
EVENTS FOR YOU.DE
“With this haunting film, the director succeeds in shedding light on the death penalty in the GDR. (…) Outstanding actors were found for the film in Lars Eidinger, Devid Striesow and Luise Heyer, who tackled the subject and are guaranteed to move the audience to tears.”
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG
“Lars Eidinger […] one of the most accomplished actors of his generation”
HR2 KULTUR
“Outstanding actor: Lars Eidinger”
“Also very good Luise Heyer and Devid Striesow”
“Stasi man Striesow dances wonderfully uptight”
INDIEKINO
“Eidinger once again plays big without rising above his character.”
“Quietly touching.”
IN MÜNCHEN
“Breathtaking”
MORITZ
“Watching Lars Eidinger act is generally a pleasure. Even in this German-German story about a Stasi employee plagued by remorse who breaks with the system even before the fall of the Berlin Wall, one is amazed at his intense and emotionally dense performance.”
MÜNCHNER MERKUR
“Eidinger shows […] a great range […] clear acting”
“Stünkel’s sober and yet radical film captivates not only through the fine balance of the characters, but especially through the excellent camera work of Nikolai von Graevenitz”
“Worth seeing”
NDR HALLO NIEDERSACHSEN
“Incredibly finely choreographed and densely narrated”
NDR HAMBURG JOURNAL
“Atmospherically dense movie”
NOBILIS MAGAZIN
“Stünkel’s film “The Last Execution” helps to raise awareness of the issue and could lead to important discussions throughout the country.”
NOCHNFILM.DE
“The way Lars Eidinger plays this man who believed in the GDR for a long time and only collapses during the prosecutor’s plea is phenomenal.”
“But the special thing about “The Last Execution” is the look. The way director Franziska Stünkel has managed to document the entire ugliness of a state using only the furnishings of the offices and apartments is unique.”
“Form and content form a wonderful unity here. This is intelligent cinema at its best! And at the end, with the “surprising close-up shot”, everyone probably wants to close their eyes in horror. A tough movie that lingers for a long time.”
PLAYER
“A Lars Eidinger with a strong nuance”
“Exceptionally fine, visually powerful adaptation that becomes psychologically precise fiction.”
PLAYERWEB.DE
“It is the rise and fall of an individual in a system that director Franziska Stünkel elevates to the core. She stays focused on Franz Walter the man, only very rarely touching on the annoying symbolism that characterizes so many tepid ‘in-between films’ about East Germany. A Lars Eidinger with a strong nuance helps her in this. He really plays his character’s tipping point as a momentum, because it’s not a process that lets Franz slip away.”
POINTER.DE
“Eidinger’s portrayal of the protagonist is authentic and captivating. Every emotion he expresses gives the viewer goosebumps. The feelings stay with the audience even after the movie is over. The character of Corina provides an insight into how the work of the MFS affected people’s relationships and the sacrifices that were made when deciding to become part of this system. The film brings a piece of German history to the cinemas that is discussed far too little in public and is still often kept quiet about today.”
STADTBLATT OSNABRÜCK
With an outstanding cast, the award-winning feature film THE LAST EXECUTION is not only fascinating as a historical political drama, but also as a captivating character study.”
SAARBRÜCKER ZEITUNG
“The change of conscience is somewhat abrupt dramaturgically, but is made credible by Lars Eidinger’s once again highly precise performance. (…) The fact that the director has succeeded in creating an unusually comprehensive yet factual portrayal of the East German regime elevates “The Last Execution” to a high rank as a feature film about German history.”
SÜDKURIER
“Famous performance by the leading actor”
TAGESPOST
“Outstanding camera by Nikolai von Graevenitz”
“Franziska Stünkel succeeds not only in portraying the 1970s in the GDR with a select set, but also in recreating the oppressive atmosphere. Lars Eidinger, who plays Franz Walter credibly, makes a decisive contribution to this.”
TAG24
That’s why “The Last Execution” is a German drama worth seeing, which deals with its diverse themes in a refreshing way, is intense and exciting and tells an important story in an excellent way. The film also boasts great acting performances, which make even minor editing and script weaknesses only marginally noticeable. Well worth it!”
Small World
Tagesspiegel
Because there was a short film at the Berlinale that had something like characters and people portrayed by actors who were more than just an extension of a directorial idea, a gag and a plot that was just a plot without any meat around it. It’s called “Small World”, by Franziska Stünkel. (…) In “Small World”, Fritzi Haberlandt plays one of the most touching characters of the Berlinale: a girl who climbs over her balcony every day and paints her windows from the outside, risking her life, because she has fallen in love with the window cleaner. The scene in which she stands enraptured in her apartment and the young window cleaner hangs in front of her window like an angel and cleans it – it’s so beautifully unconditional and much funnier than the great, serious Tom Tykwer love in “Heaven”.
FAZ
… this story is true in a way that few love stories are.
FAZ
There can be no doubt about it, this story is as true as few love stories are. Franziska Stünkel’s “It’s a small world and things like this” not only impresses with its sure sense of what a film can achieve in 15 brisk minutes. With a prominent cast including Sissi Perlinger, Peter Lohmeyer and Fritzi Haberlandt, the stylish black-and-white film was one of the audience’s favorites.
Schnitt
The prize for the best German short film went to a work with the telling title “It`s a small world and things like this”. Two love stories are told in parallel in skillfully staged black and white images: One love blossoms into fresh life, the other is thawed out like a frozen fish. Director Franziska Stünkel has succeeded in making a well thought-out and convincing short film thanks to the support of well-known actors (Peter Lohmeyer and Fritzi Haberlandt play alongside Perlinger) and Fury In The Slaughterhouse as co-producers (the film is one of five short films intended to promote their new record).
Emdener Zeitung
“It’s a small world and things like this” (Germany): Two women who lead their very own lives and find the courage to change things. The result is a wonderful movie with a good story and music. (…)
Sächsische Zeitung
And the unobtrusive, intense love poetry Franziska Stünkel was able to create with “It’s a small world and things like this” from a lyrical idea, three days of shooting, a mini-budget and the best actors is more than astonishing.
Pro Sieben
The absolute highlight: the twelve-minute film “It’s a small world and thins like this”, directed by Franziska Stünkel, in which actors Sissi Perlinger, Fritzi Haberland, Peter Lohmeyer and Hyun Wanner demonstrate, embedded in the Fury song “Things like this”, that everything in the world is somehow connected.
dpa Deutsche Presse Agentur
Stünkel’s result, the film “It’s a small word and Things like this” impressed Fury In The Slaughterhouse the most: it is the only one to be shown in the concert breaks of the current tour.
Neue Presse
Like the Fury song, the film story is full of melancholy and power.
Jurybegründung, Int. Filmfestival Dresden
Bester Kurzfilm National
Short film with a long-term effect.