by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent
“Sometimes, there’s a man, well, he’s the man for his time and place. He fits right in there.” Oops, sorry that’s a line cribbed from The Big Lebowski’s narrator Sam Elliott, that has nothing to do with Pluto Film’s release WIR ELTERN, retitled in English as PARENTS, except for the hipster factor.
This is a German, with other languages included, film by Eric Bergkraut, Ruth Schweikert “and family.” The father character in this is seriously Dude-like in the parenting realm for our Pandemic era. Father and mother, who are under siege from their twin young adult ingrate children and a tween, are both Dude-cool, shall we say, in the parlance of our times.
Though no masks or gloves are indicated, these beleaguered marrieds handle the pressure of their off-spring’s prolonged adolescence with aplomb, mostly. There are poignant comedic touches in here with “experts” and hijinks of the redefined woke family kind.
Perfect viewing for COVID-19 house arrest and beyond. Watch…
PLUTO’s Official Spiel About This Film
PARENTS by Eric Bergkraut, Ruth Schweikert Comedy, Switzerland: Veronika and Michael Kamber-Gruber let their late-pubescent twin sons paralyze their lives. And neither carrot nor stick are of any use. Romeo and Anton can hardly get out of bed and rarely go to school; sexist and racist slogans are the order of the day. When their grandfather entices his grandsons to even more autonomy with an advance of 80,000 francs on their inheritance, the situation escalates completely. The unnerved parents flee the apartment with the youngest of their three sons and move into the studio they actually rented for Romeo. The couple believes they are saving their marriage and don’t realize that they are celebrating their own surrender.
Festivals: Locarno FF; Tromso IFF; FebioFest Prague Original Title: Wir Eltern Written by: Eric Bergkraut, Ruth Schweikert Director of Photography: Stéphane Kuthy Cast: Elisabeth Niederer, Eric Bergkraut, Elia Bergkraut Original Language: Swiss German Production Company: p.s. 72 productions Produced by: Eric Bergkraut.
Enjoy, housebound film fans… Cure for Cabin Fever, yes? Find the whole PLUTO catalog here. YW 😉
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