Death and bureaucracy are two topics that are reluctant to exchange ideas and that you certainly don't associate with fun. But in the “New German Cinema” section of the Munich Film Festival, two directorial debut deals with exactly these uncomfortable topic in very different ways this year. While Jacqueline Jansen's drama “six -week office” by Jacqueline Jansen translates the grief for the deceased mother into a silent, grueling examination of loss and bureaucratic hurdles after death, director Julius Grimm beats his debut “Branch“A completely different tone and turns the dark topic into a Bavarian Afterlife comedy.
After a fatal car accident, four friends do not end up in the white light, but in the branch of southern Germany III/2 – and can first pull a waiting number there. With long, barren corridors, annoyed clerk as well as lots of terms and conditions, Grimm tinkers a weird comedy about missed opportunities, questions of faith and the omnipotence of bureaucracy. Not every punch line sits, the middle part loses to Drive, and the tragic fate of the protagonist that has just died in itself does not want to reveal emotionally in the over -the -end setting of the satire of the authorities. But the playful ensemble ensures that the idiosyncratic basic idea works – and the last passage of the authorities is so amusing that in the end even the audience award of the festival has jumped out for it.
The undertaker (Rick Kavanian, Florian Brückner) prove to be particularly clever and business -minded in “branch”.
Actually, Resi (Sarah Mahita) wanted to separate from Michi (Julian Gutmann) and had even played through that with her best friend Sophie (Hong Nhung). But then Michi tells her about his cancer diagnosis and she stays by his side. Three years later he is dead. Resi stolen his ashes from the urn to fulfill his last wish and scatter it on a mountain.
Together with her clique, she makes her way into the Alps. But the four friends fatally crush their car. When you come back to you, you will find yourself in a hereafter authority. There you have to face the bureaucratic madness after death. Unfortunately, none of them have ever believed in something – and whoever believed in life has only believed that there is only one place in nothing …
Only 8 minutes per case
“Branch” tells of four young people who have just died and find themselves in a kind of position shortly afterwards. In fine rib-sub-shirts and understandably very irritated, you will immediately preserve from the receptionist that you are still during the well-deserved lunch break before you are allowed to draw your waiting tickets: Welcome to the authority after death! What begins as a bizarre idea turns out to be astonishing scenario. The two clerks Rita and Silvia, played wonderfully covered by Luise Kinseher (“Karli & Marie”) and Johanna Bittenbinder (“Hindafing”), have an average of eight minutes per case to find out what the respective person believed.
Because if you have believed nothing, you only stay in the door. With dry humor and a fine feeling for absurd situations, director Julius Grimm stages the branch of southern Germany III/2 as a bureaucracy pre-hell, including file chaos and overwhelmed clerk. The fact that this concept opens is particularly due to the consistently implemented look: symmetrical settings, pale colors and absurd corridors and chambers create a strange atmosphere between the office and the intermediate world, the Bavarian-Jensite answer to Wes Anderson.
The symmetrical look of “branch” is reminiscent of the films by master director Wes Anderson.
The actors of the four friends who have just died, who all try to get out of what is even impending for them, convince with freshness and joy of playing. Sarah Mahita (“old white man”) gives her Resi a mixture of defiance, grief and resistance. Rainer Bock (“Karla”) develops as a friendly caretaker from the edge phenomenon to the key figure. A stubborn toddler on the chair of the head of the authorities, a frustrated emergency doctor and two witty-business-fitting undertakers (Rick Kavanian, Florian Brückner) provide absurd tips, while the band “Roy Bianco & Die Abbrunzati Boys” repeatedly plays music in the background and thus underlines the Bavarian flair of the afterlife atmosphere.
The hereafter authority designed with dry comedy impresses with its very own, headstrong charm. While the film works well in its satirical scenes, he loses some contour towards the end, especially when protagonist Resi struggles with her death and the feeling of having not lived her life herself. This most emotional-first undertone does not fully fits in the over-the-top, humorous frames.
Conclusion: “branch” is an amusing hereafter comedy with an absurd-bureaucratic setting. Not all of the jokes, and the serious undertones do not want to fit into the action entirely, but the original basic idea of a Bavarian afterlife office, which assigns the deceased various sides, is definitely bearing.
We saw “branch” at the Munich film festival in 2025, where he celebrated its world premiere.