"Sturköpfe" is a German film from 2015, so this one will have its 5th anniversary in december this year. The title can perhaps be translated into "Stubborn People", but the German term is slightly more on the playful side implying that they are still kinda likable. The film runs for 1.5 hours and was directed by Pia Strietmann and written by Dominque Lorenz. Well, what can I say about them both? They were not very experienced when they made this film, also aren't today, but also far from being rookies. But most of the other stuff they worked on is also not particularly good. Same applies to this one here. It barely manages to stay away from failure territory, but is miles away from being a good, let alone great, movie. One thing that is interesting is that Lorenz also has about as many acting as writing credits, but lately it seems as if she focused more on her work behind the camera. The cast includes familiar faces. Alwara Höfels is an actress everybody here in Germany will at least recognize the face. Peter Haber has had international success with Swedish films, so I find it a bit sad what his career has come to that he now shows up in trashy German small screen releases like this one here. I think I saw him in another not too long ago and that one was even worse. Way worse in fact. And as you can see from the title of my review I think he was the one reason that kept this movie we have here from being another really terrible outcome. His portrayal of a blind man coming to terms with his environment was pretty decent, almost awards-worthy at times. Oh wait, I see they picked the English/international title "Another Kind of Light"? Okay, that would be completely different compared to the German title, but also bad, just for other reasons. the German title says almost nothing about the movie and could have been used for thousands of other films probably. The English-language title makes a reference to blindness, but also sounds a bit pretentious. Back to the characters, Gundi Ellert is one I also recognized, even if I did not remember the name. Well, she does not have too much to work with, but is tolerable. The film is never really about anybody else than the two people you see on the photo. Maria Bachmann is also easy to identify, even if she only has one scene and nothing to work with either. The one who comes closest to a third lead is Sönke Möhring. I think he is not really less talented than his brother Wotan Wilke, but not half as famous. And he has been in some good movies. Anyway, here he plays the male protagonist's son that actually the female protagonist develops a bit of a crush on. I will get to that later. Yeah, that is enough for the characters and the key actors.
Now, let's take a look at the plot and story. Again, I must start with the lead actress. Höfels is an actress who is pretty good in playing likable characters that are not your average female, but a bit more on the gruff side. Not sure that is the right word, but you get what I mean: She does not want to be called "girlie" for example, she plays characters in the sense that they are not barbie females, but know what life is and have been through a bit and fight their demons too etc. One "demon" here would be her mother who is apparently more than just a little bit on the promiscuous side and it has a negative impact on the daughter, but as she and the blind man grow closer (as friends) they kinda help each other with coming to terms with certain events. This mother story is one. Another is how she helps him not only professionally ith his blindness, but also with his relationship with his son, with how he needs to be more grateful for Ellert's self-sacrificing work and more. Actually, I thought for a moment, Ellert's character could also be an antagonist early on. But she definitely is not, even if they also did not make as much with this character as they could have. And he helps her with getting her courage and actually asking out her son. Which she does and the result surprised me a bit, especially with the hug from earlier on. Namely, that he was not interested. This twist (not a romantic happy ending) and also not an antagonist was a bit unusual for a film like this. Very rare that you see decisions like these in ARD Degeto films and this is actually one reason why this movie turned out slightly better than 100 other Degeto films, probably hundreds in fact. Still you can see from my rating that there are also glaring weaknesses. One big weakness is the man's dream to convince the workers at his company that nothing will change, he is still a strong lead figure and also nobody will get fired. This is where the film took itself very seriously and I did not like it because it never worked out well from a dramatic perspective and I think they could have come up with a better idea there. The big walk towards the end was even a bit on the cringeworthy side. They made up for that with the final shot though. The two main characters meeting in the rain again as a good shot to close the film, even if I liked it more for the scenario really than for the significance and link to a previous scene/statement. Eventually, the main reason why I'd give this film a thumbs-down is really the key of the story how the two protagonists grow closer to each other in both their gruff ways. i thought it was a bit too stereotypical and clichéd for my taste all in all and simply not good enough for a positive recommendation. Nowhere near in fact. The film is closer to territory, but as I a explained earlier, also manages to stay away from that. Haber is the winning factor here. Still, skip the watch.
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