Around 250,000 duds are still undetected in the ground today and often only appear in preparation for construction projects. Although the Second World War, in which the aviator bombs have not yet been or not completely detonated by the Allies, have been over for 80 years, they still run out of danger – especially if they have long -term lifters. On June 1st, 2010, the detonation of a US bomb in Göttingen caused tragic headlines-three employees in the environment of the ordnance disposal service, which was preparing the defusing, were seriously injured, and two other people were seriously injured. At the time of the explosion at 9:30 p.m., the evacuation of a total of 7,200 people from the affected district in the 1,000-meter circle around the site was not yet complete …
As a metaphor for lurking injuries and repressed trauma, which affect a variety of people and can only be overcome by a helping and supportive cooperation, director and screenwriter Kerstin Polte (“Who actually has love?”) Wish in her drama to remain the remnant in World War II. “”Unexplod“Is connected by a variety of gender, origin and age groups in numerous directions and therefore ran on a dozen (partly thematically specialized) German film festivals. However, the noticeable, sometimes somewhat convulsive effort leads to perspective diversity in the film that is told in moving episodes every now and then into some arguments.
When trauma and oppressed feelings are rinsed on the surface, psychologist Ava Shabani (Haley Louise Jones) must donate comfort.
A 1000 pound bomb from the Second World War is found during construction work in the Hamburg Schanzenviertel. The ordnance disposal service is concerned for the defusing: the experienced Otto Bismarck (Bernhard Schütz), who has just received a devastating diagnosis from the doctor, and his colleague Lane (Anne Ratte-Polle) and her team make the necessary preparations for the controlled explosive the next day. But it works differently than planned: Otto learns that his wife Hanne (Claudia Michelsen) has an affair with a decades of younger teacher colleagues and then roams the city aimlessly. He meets the travel agency employee and travesty artist Viktor Knigge (Karl Markovics). Viktor's Afghan roommate Junis Nerwa (Ivar Wafaei) cannot be evacuated either, as is the traumatized neighbor Margit Petersen (Barbara Nüssen) traumatized by the bombs of World War II – while her daughter Lane, which is also suffering from an anxiety disorder, threatens to collapse under the pressure on her lasting pressure …
Diverse, queer – and not always credible
Filmmacher Kerstin Polte chose a multi -perspective, queer narrative style for “unexploded”, in which – according to the press booklet – each figure is given its own space and its own voice. In fact, equality and diversity in your ensemble film is not only very important in the production circumstances (all actors have been paid uniforms). A large number of socially marginalized groups of people are also bustling among the characters, some of which have been a bit clumsy and overloaded into the film as if a checklist had been worked through.
The episode for getting to know Otto and Viktor, in turn, seems particularly unbelievable: Both meet by chance because of a rabbit in the shop window and disappear after several hours together (!) In the travel agency in the catacombs of the “prince bar”, where they slip into other identities together – while in Viktor Margit and Junis in a childish way. The Austrian Karl Markovics (most recently seen in “Das Licht” in the cinema), as a shirt -noise chaot, also ensures the funniest moments when he has to improvise and protect the hidden margit when he arrives.
At a turning point of his life, Otto Bismarck (Bernhard Schütz) tries out new identities.
This loosening lightness is also needed in this heart -warming and stirring film with characters in emotional emergency. In his best moments – in the virtuoso dramatic worsening of the parallel episodes and the use of tender pop songs when driving into the characters in their loneliest moments – “unexploded” with his great empathy for his strong characters even reminds of the episodic masterpiece “Magnolia” (1999) by Paul Thomas Anderson. A scene in the washroom of a gym is particularly touching, as the psychologist Ava Shabani (Haley Louise Jones), which appears with headphones, and otherwise with a zero-goat attitude, the hyperventilating and sexually facing the female gender Lana rebuilt with a hug and calm encouragement of courage. This is more moving and emotional than the bomb defusing, which is strongly dramatized at the end by a storm and rain, in dark images, which then translates the title -giving metaphor around the silent lurking dangers into the concrete meaning of the word.
Conclusion: Even if a certain agenda to the most colorful as possible variety in the figures looks somewhat covered, touches and moves “unexploded” deep. Filmmacher Kerstin Polte succeeds in sensitively and stirring up to sensitize drama for more human warmth and solidarity in the episodes of her virtuoso.