Germany 2020
Opening September 17, 2020
Directed by: Maggie Peren
Writing credits: Maggie Peren
Principal actors: Alicia von Rittberg, Emilia Schüle, Tim Oliver Schultz
Zazie (Alicia von Rittberg) shares an apartment with two guys, Anton (Edin Hasanovic) and Patrick (Samuel Schneider). They are good friends, assisting each other through various challenges. At the moment Zazie is in a state of agitation; she has been invited to the wedding of her childhood friend Philipp (Tim Oliver Schultz). He will marry Franziska (Emilia Schüle), whom Zazie also remembers from childhood as a cruel bully. What a terrible mistake: Philipp linked eternally to Franziska? Definitely not. Can she stop the wedding, which is today? Zazie, accompanied by Anton, rides to the celebration on her motorcycle, determined to change history.
This scene is repeated in different ways about 20 times. Each morning Zazie wakes up (from her sleep under a beautiful hand-knitted quilt), remembers her goal, and takes off, always with different results. This has been compared to the 1993 film Groundhog Day. It is never boringly repetitious, as we watch all five characters interact, accompanied by Zazie’s mother, father, sister, and more friends. It is so refreshing to experience these young German actors giving all their energy and talent. This is a German film, partly sponsored by the Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, with scenes filmed in Hamburg including the wedding which takes place on a boat in the harbor on the Elbe River. Although the language is German, all 22 songs are in English, including three different versions of “Mr. Sandman, give me a dream.” There is even a slide into philosophy, with a quote from Arthur Schopenhauer, “Der Mensch…kann nicht wollen was er will.” (One cannot want what one desires.) This entertaining film is not to be mistaken for another film of the same name: Hello Again from 2017, about 10 love affairs, based on the 1993 musical by Michael Jahn LaChiusa. Both films are about relationships, but in our film, it’s a continuous rerun of just one. ()