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Customer Reviews of Hilde's Journey

Well-intentioned but glum, static drama
Stealing a dead person's ashes from a sealed crypt is sufficiently outrageous that a movie about such an act might well be a black comedy. However, Christof Vorster, the director of Hilde's Journey, is deadly serious. The deceased, one Martin Hilder, died of AIDS, and though he has left his ex-lover Steff (Oliver Stokowski), a financially strapped carpenter, his entire fortune, Steff is willing to sell out to the dead man's harridan of a mother for just enough money to start his business. Martin's last partner, Rex (Michael Finger), however, has other ideas. He's the one who purloins the remains and starts "Hilde" on the journey of the title, accompanied by a wary Steff, who isn't sure whether he wants to assist in carrying out the deceased's last wish to be scattered in the sea, or steal the ashes back so he can appease Hilde's wrathful mother and collect his money. <
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>For the high-minded filmmaker there are lots of possibilities here, of course: the grief of losing a loved one, the stigma of AIDS (Rex has the disease too), the dysfunctional family, the rocky relationship of two people who loved the same person. The cast, none of whom I had seen before, is attractive and talented: I particularly liked Katharina von Bock as a watchful female friend to the central pair. Altogether it doesn't quite work, however, mostly because the script fails to show why the dead Martin is worth all the trouble (he is never seen except in a childhood photograph)--in fact it's never even clear why Rex constantly refers to him in the feminine; was he into drag? Transgendered? Or is Rex just twitting the unshakably butch Steff? The proceedings would also have benefited from a more balanced portrayal of Martin's mother, who is portrayed as such a witch, right down to her black hat and bad makeup, that I started to feel a paradoxical sympathy for her. There are incidental pleasures to be had in the scenic, though stagy, photography, and one appreciates the casual way that the characters' sexuality is depicted, including some unself-conscious male nudity; but in the end the parts do not add up to a coherent whole. One somewhat bizarre scene toward the end involving the mother's creative resolution to the ashes problem, though out of kilter with the rest, suggests the darkly comic potential in the tale that here remains unrealized.

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A Theme of Interlocking Tenderness
'Hildes Reise' ('Hilde's Journey') is a surprisingly tender film despite the cover art suggesting a harsh and angry young man movie. Director Christof Vorster directs this screenplay he wrote with Gabriele Strohm and gives us a story that deals with difficult issues of AIDS, parental homophobia, relationship challenges met and squandered, and the power of shared love for a departed friend that can overcome almost any barrier. <
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>Steff (Oliver Stokowski) works in an antique shop repairing furniture and longs for a shop of his own. His credit scores are low, he is unable to secure a business loan, and his outlook is bleak. Word reaches him that his ex-lover Martin, the son of a wealthy German family (the mother played by Heidi Maria Gloesser) who continue to deny his sexual preference, has died: the family calls the cause of death cancer, but the true cause is AIDS. Steff attends the funeral and Rex (Michael Finger) a young friend of Martin (who is also affectionately known as 'Hilde') shows up distraught, raging at the family for denying that their son died of AIDS. The will is read and Martin/Hilde left his entire estate to Steff: at last here is a source of money to advance Steff's career. <
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>Martin/Hilde also has requested that he be cremated and his ashes thrown to the sea. The mother refuses this wish, attempting to deny her son's past and ensconce him in the family mausoleum. Steff addresses the family and tells them he will accept only a fraction of the money he has inherited, sacrificing the urn of ashes to carry out Martin/Hilde's wishes. Rex kidnaps the urn and together with Steff the two set out on a journey, initially for different reasons, but ultimately for the respect of Martin/Hilde whom they both loved (Rex also has AIDS, met Martin in the hospital and spent his last year with him as a caregiver). The way in which the potentially conflicting pairing of Steff and Rex is resolved is both touching and a satisfying ending. <
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>The cast is uniformly excellent, the photography of the German and French countryside by Hans Meier is lush and moody, and the music score by Karsten Riedel is minimal but just right for the moods of the film. Yes, this could be categorized as a gay film, but its messages are so universal and the quality of the filmmaking so fine that it deserves a very wide audience. In German with English subtitles. Grady Harp, October 06