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Review: Der Bunker (2015), Where Humor, Horror, and Surrealism Collide

Der Bunker german movie

&NewLine;<p>If you were to explain the plot of Nikias Chryssos&&num;8217&semi; <em>Der Bunker<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar; to a friend&comma; they might think you were describing a weird fever dream you had rather than an actual film&period; The plot centers on a young man &lpar;Pit Bukowski&rpar;&comma; known only as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Student&comma;” who agrees to live with a family in a remote house to work on making a scientific breakthrough related to the Higgs boson&comma; sometimes referred to as the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;God Particle&period;” However&comma; upon arriving at his new winter retreat&comma; he is disappointed to find that it is not&comma; in fact&comma; an idyllic waterfront room with a view&comma; but rather a windowless bunker in the middle of nowhere&period; To make things more complicated&comma; the husband and wife who own the bunker are peculiar&comma; to say the least&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>When the Student pays the Father &lpar;David Scheller&rpar; a seemingly paltry sum for his stay&comma; the Father declares that the Student can help out around the house to pay off his debts&period; Later&comma; when the Father and Mother &lpar;Oona von Maydell&rpar; sit down to have a meal with the Student&comma; the Father records the Student’s consumption of an additional dumpling and several napkins&period; He later uses this as proof of the Student&&num;8217&semi;s greediness&period; As a result&comma; the Student must do whatever he can to pay off his debts&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Around this time&comma; we are introduced to the most darkly humorous character of the story&colon; Klaus &lpar;played by Daniel Fripan&comma; an actor in his mid-30s at the time of filming&rpar;&period; According to the Mother and Father&comma; Klaus is just 8 years old&comma; but&comma; despite adopting the demeanor and clothing of a child&comma; he looks much&comma; much older&period; His parents&comma; frustrated that Klaus is not advancing in his studies&comma; ask the Student to replace the Father as Klaus’ new tutor&period; The Student would prefer to spend time on his work&comma; which he insists requires &&num;8220&semi;absolute concentration&comma;&&num;8221&semi; but he is eventually strong-armed into placing the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;boy” under his tutilage&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The Student and Klaus have very awkward interactions at first&comma; as it becomes abundantly clear that the Mother and Father have kept Klaus from experiencing normal life&period; He is unfamiliar with the act of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;playing” and his knowledge of various subjects implies questionable teaching methods on the part of the Father&period; Though the Student is initially frustrated with Klaus’ ineptitude and naivety&comma; he eventually grows to pity Klaus and the surreal&comma; claustrophobic environment in which he has been brought up&period; Nonetheless&comma; in order to show the Mother and Father that Klaus is making progress&comma; the Student is resigned to use a wooden cane and violence &lpar;a suggestion from the Father&rpar; to force Klaus to memorize every country’s capital&period; The Mother and Father are delighted by Klaus’ newfound knowledge&comma; and they insist that he will one day become president of the United States&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><meta charset&equals;"utf-8"><em>For his birthday&comma; Klaus sings &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Happy Birthday” to himself&comma; much in the way that Marylin Monroe sang to JFK&period;<&sol;em><&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;09&sol;Screen-Shot-2021-09-01-at-4&period;06&period;03-PM-1024x545&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Der Bunker &lpar;2015&rpar; happy birthday scene" class&equals;"wp-image-2328"&sol;><figcaption><em>Der Bunker<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile&comma; the Mother&comma; who shows an uncomfortable attraction to the Student&comma; reveals that there is some kind of entity living in an open wound on her leg&period; The entity gives her instructions on how to bring up Klaus and what to do about both the Father and the Student&period; With time&comma; the Student and the Mother develop a sexual relationship&comma; which seems to help the Student make progress in his work&period; However&comma; as the Student becomes increasingly skeptical of the parents and their treatment of Klaus&comma; he endeavors to free Klaus&comma; leading to a series of surreal and violent clashes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The plot sounds strange enough on its own&comma; but I have failed to mention some of the most bizarre and unsettling elements&period; For &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;fun&comma;” the family gathers in the living room&comma; where the Father puts on clownish makeup and reads bad jokes from a book of puns&comma; much to the delight of Klaus&comma; who has virtually no other outlets for entertainment&period; While Klaus appears to be an adult and eats regular food&comma; he is also breastfed by the Mother&period; To make things even weirder&comma; the family celebrates Klaus’ birthday by dressing him up in old-fashioned clothing and having him sing &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Happy Birthday” to himself &lpar;as president&rpar;&comma; much in the fashion that Marylin Monroe famously sang to JFK&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Though he possesses very little agency in his own right&comma; Klaus steals the show&period; It is both hilarious and extremely unsettling to see adult actor Daniel Fripan play an 8-year-old boy&period; Whether he is actually supposed to be eight or this is just a lie crafted by his parents is never made clear&period; But either way&comma; Klaus is a strange little man-boy&period; From the ridiculous bowl haircut to his undersized pajamas&comma; Klaus helps bring a bizarre sense of life to an otherwise decaying environment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>Despite making you uncomfortable every step of the way&comma; Der Bunker is a beautiful piece of Surrealist Cinema&period;<&sol;em><&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;09&sol;Screen-Shot-2021-09-01-at-4&period;10&period;27-PM-1024x559&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Der Bunker" class&equals;"wp-image-2329"&sol;><figcaption><em>Der Bunker<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>However&comma; it is the way in which Klaus is raised that often makes you feel uneasy and&comma; in some cases&comma; terrified&period; Though the surrealist foundation helps lighten some of the horrific elements&comma; if taken in a literal sense&comma; Klaus is nothing short of a prisoner&comma; with two psychotic wardens&period; His story would be a child services case that you might see on the nightly news&period; Thus&comma; while Klaus often helps lift the mood and bring humor to the whole thing&comma; his circumstances create a much darker ambiance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Despite making you &lpar;as a viewer&rpar; uncomfortable every step of the way&comma; <em>Der Bunker<&sol;em> is a beautiful piece of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;18&sol;10-surrealist-films-for-philosophy-students&sol;">Surrealist Cinema<&sol;a>&period; It is set in a dreary&comma; poorly lit bunker&comma; and yet every shot is executed with exquisite precision and visual appeal&period; The photography alone helps undermine some of the plot’s most dark and unseemly elements&comma; while &lpar;somewhat ironically&rpar; amplifying moments of horror and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;perversion&period;” It is truly a film of constant contradictions&comma; where every look&comma; every word&comma; and every action mean something and nothing all at once&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>Der Bunker<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar; Movie Rating&colon; &starf;&starf;&starf;&starf;&half; out of 5<&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>When it is all said and done&comma; there’s little I can write against the film&period; I have not always been a huge fan of intensely surreal films&comma; in which producing dreamlike images supersedes all other film elements&comma; like coherent plot progression&comma; character development&comma; and so on&period; Fortunately&comma; Nikias Chryssos finds the perfect balance between quality storytelling and surrealist eccentricity with <em>Der Bunker<&sol;em>&period; So&comma; if you have the patience and fortitude to feel uncomfortable&comma; confused&comma; amused&comma; and horrified&comma; <em>Der Bunker<&sol;em> is most definitely the perfect film for you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you’d like to watch <em>Der Bunker<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar;&comma; it is currently available to stream&comma; rent&comma; or purchase on <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;shudder&period;com&sol;">Shudder<&sol;a> or <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B01M3545UV&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B01M3545UV&amp&semi;linkId&equals;f40a6e79dcae0ab77ff14a5c94a31e29">Amazon Prime<&sol;a>&period; For more film reviews like this one&comma; be sure to check out the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film<&sol;a> homepage&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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