— a review by Paula Treneer —
Orcas Island Film Fest
“Zwischen Welten” is a slow-paced, almost ponderous, film set in a tribal Afghani village, whose elders have asked the ISAF German troops for protection. Starring the appealing East Berliner Ronald Zehrfeld, the plot highlights the cultural misunderstandings and moral dilemmas for Jesper, a German soldier on a second tour of duty, following the earlier loss of his brother in similar circumstances.
Afghani actor Mohsin Ahmady portrays a local youth working as an interpreter, whose dealings with the Germans puts him and his family in harm’s way. The cultural misunderstandings mediated by Tarik, the interpreter, as well as Jesper’s attempts to be protective of him, create a humanist character who seems increasingly at odds with his comrades and his mission.
More realistic characters in this attempt to portray the ISAF soldiers as misunderstood “good guys” were offered by the Afghani Arbaki tribal leader Haroon, played by Salam Yousefzai, whose vehement opposition to the cultural misunderstandings of the visiting troops were driven by a real sense of anger at the interference by the outsiders and their ignorance of the cultural context.
While overall a well acted and well-shot film, its simplistic plot and overly obvious cultural messages left me wondering if the film’s message wasn’t an overt attempt to curry favor with a German audience by showing their soldiers as the “good guys.” While at the end of the film Jesper is shown meditating over the “Unvergessen” engraved on his brother’s grave, I fear the film will be rather more forgettable than “unvergessen” for me.
