Black Box shows the tenants:inside of an apartment building in Berlin going for each other’s throats. And it’s worth it! The film is in cinemas across Germany from August 10, 2023.
The old Berlin building in Black Box has seen better days. Plaster is crumbling everywhere. It smells in the hallways. Frustration is building up among the residents. And then property manager Johannes Horn (Felix Kramer) erects a huge black box in the communal backyard to keep a closer eye on the building community.
Longtime acquaintances suddenly become enemies. When the police seal off the building because of an allegedly dangerous situation and forbid the residents to leave the property, things escalate. And it is precisely this escalation that you can witness in German cinemas from August 10, 2023.
Paranoid neighbors: Black Box locks a house community full of secrets in a backyard
Director and screenwriter Asli Özge lets us in on a conflict through the eyes of young mother Henrike (Luise Heyer), which soon becomes about more than bullying by the building management.
Getting into Black Box
Quickly, no one is sure: Do I even know the people I’ve shared my house and backyard with for so long? And are the police desperate to talk to the mysterious Madonna (Manal Issa)? Paranoia sets in. Suddenly, the grand conspiracy that would-be revolutionary Erik (Christian Berkel) is talking about doesn’t seem so improbable anymore.
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Black Box manages to tighten the cinematic thumbscrews more and more over the course of its roughly two-hour running time, until there’s nothing you’d rather do in front of the screen yourself than escape the tenement war zone. The increasingly heated neighborhood parties close in around you like the walls of the house around the Berlin backyard from the film.
“Painfully clear in her observations, director Aslı Özge holds up a mirror to our society with her ensemble drama Black Box. “
In the end, not only for the tenants, but also for the audience, the larger truth behind all the small conflicts comes together. And ends in an escalation that at least I didn’t see coming. Conclusion: Black Box is a really intense German film that should not be missed.
