Berlin School' filmmakers create three films with unifying themes

The idea for "Dreileben," a trilogy of interconnected films by three of Germany's most renowned contemporary directors, was borne out of a deep discussion about the state of German cinema. These members of the Berlin School (a group of German filmmakers who represent their country on the international film festival circuit) committed to making a film set in Thuringia- a bucolic province at the center of Germany that has vast forests- that involves an escaped convict and the manhunt for him. Each film has a distinct angle and focus; each one stands on its own but contains glimpses of the other films that enrich its meaning. Catch them at Harvard Film Archive Jan. 13-16 or at ArtsEmerson the weekends of Feb. 3 and 10.

According to the Harvard Film Archives website, the three titles - "Beats Being Dead (Etwas Besseres als den Tod)," "Don't Follow Me Around (Komm mir nicht nacho)," and "One Minute of Darkness (Eine Minute Dunkel)" - "are independent of one another - each has its own plot, so that each can be understood on its own - and they can be seen in any order. At the same time, seeing the others deepens the experience of each film. Together, the three films construct a narrative maze whose labyrinthine depths contain glimpses of other stories - which mostly involve the lives of the police - that branch off from the central manhunt thread: the aging detective with a bad ear and failure of a son he keeps at arm's length; the hothead cop who's quick to fire his weapon and even quicker to lose his temper; and hints of corruption within the force. Living up to its origins in the debate over genre, narrative and auteurism, Dreileben moves swiftly through a vast array of storytelling genres: fairy tale, horror film, suspense thriller, character study, love story."

EDGE was able to see two of the three films beforehand.

Beats Being Dead

In "Beats Being Dead" the escaped convict narrative is mostly a backdrop in a somewhat mysterious and sometimes sinister drama about a tumultuously blossoming sexual relationship between Johannes, a pretty-faced hospital intern, and Ana, a pretty but petulant Bosnian immigrant, who is a room maid at a local hotel. The circumstances of the inception of their infatuation serve as a sort of portent for what will follow in their intimacy.

Our first glimpse of Ana is as she blows Johannes a kiss through the window of a gas station. It is a playful rendition of an outdoor advertisement but apparently prompts a male member of the motorcycle gang with whom she is riding to knock Johannes to the floor, leaving him dumbfounded and bloody as the gang marches past and then tears off on their bikes. A trail of police sirens follows them, seemingly in pursuit of them but probably hunting the freshly escaped murderer. Later, Johannes' peace (he lies nude in lakeside shade) is interrupted by the gang who has arrived for some evening frolicking by the lake. A blowjob gone bad means that Ana is now the one being smacked and left behind, and it is in this way that the two meet properly.

Well-bred and mannered Johannes is a far cry from the ruffians that Ana rode with, but later on when the tensions, arisen out of their disparate backgrounds and personalities, take the forefront, he reveals a dark side, too. Ana is arguably the more compelling one here, as her mood swings and responses often suggest treacherousness, and one is left to wonder what force is driving her. It is possible to alternately view her as a deviant with sinister intentions in line with the company she kept and as a profoundly insecure teen whose erratic behavior is a result of a need for sincerity and tenderness. Johannes is confident. He has plans to study medicine in Los Angeles, and though he seems to lack ambition in the moment, he is the privileged and academic sort we know will rise to the occasion. Ana, however, harbors a delusive notion of joining him, and her lack of ambition (her idea of learning English is him talking dirty to her during sex in the target language) will more likely land her a lifetime stuck in a small town. But, as the film shows, there are worse fates.

Director Christian Petzold molds a subtle, haunting tale of teenage lust and angst, deftly using the features of the setting- expansive forest and walkable distances- to get at serenity in the process of rupture.

One Minute of Darkness

Christoph Hochh�usler's "One Minute of Darkness" brings the manhunt narrative to the fore. Frank Molesch is like a muttering adult-child with a capacity for inflicting pain- and, apparently, a tentative capacity for tenderness, as in a tense and amusing scene in which he encounters a young girl also absconding in the forest. His chance for escape comes while allowed visitation of his sick mother. Left alone with her, he manages to hide in the laundry and take off on the laundry delivery truck.

This film is largely a chase, alternating between Molesch's desperate fleeing through the forest and near catches led by older, physically compromised detective, Marcus Kreil, who seems deeply invested in the case. Though there are moments of suspense as one might find in a typical genre film, the filmmaker's finesse is applied more towards revealing nuances of character than creating intricate chase sequences. Detective and convict are both contextualized and individualized just enough to spark an interest in their nature and backstory, while still maintaining an air of nebulousness. Molesch, not surprisingly, is labeled a monster by the media, and this begets an amusing encounter when a group of elderly picnickers discover him stealing their sandwiches in the woods. Startled, he still stays to take as much food as he can before scurrying off like a skittishly self-serving squirrel; they all run in the opposite direction like frightened children when their yells prove ineffectual.

Though Molesch, with his psychological peculiarities- the infantile games and self-conversations that he fills his solitude with- is the more intriguing character, the ruthless determination of Detective Kreil is also engaging. He's not a cocksure, tough-talking cop that you might find in a genre film but a devoted solution-seeker who can't seem to avoid immersing himself despite his doctor's advice and his wife's imploring. It is not always clear where he is going with his lines of inquiry, just as it's not clear what force is propelling Molesch.

At one point, Molesch passes Ana and Johannes having sex in a cornfield. The two conflicted lovebirds only make a cameo in this film until the end when the director ties the story back to a scene of danger for Ana from part one. Both films, and the trilogy as a whole, are a treat for anyone who appreciates an ambiguous thriller- a story with mystery set in a captivating landscape and populated with carefully considered characters rather than narrative pawns.