Herbert

Goethe-Cinema Ottawa

Fri, 11/08/2019
Goethe-Institut Ottawa

Director: Thomas Stuber, Germany, colour, 109 min., 2015
Cast: Peter Kurth, Lina Wendel, Lena Lauzemis, Edin Hasanovic, Reiner Schöne, Udo Kroschwald.
In German with English subtitles.
 
Former Eastern German boxing champ Herbert has not been a winner in life since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now a hard-up bouncer and debt collector, he tries to revive the past by coaching his young boxing protégé, Eddy. After a training session, Herbert suddenly collapses with spasms of pain; however, he initially chooses to ignore the signs. When his physical deficiencies become more and more apparent, Herbert finally sees a specialist who ultimately diagnoses him with a fatal neural disease. With not much time left, Herbert struggles with himself and the hard outer shell he‘s cultivated over time. Not many things really matter to him apart from his ‘lost’ daughter Sandra, whom he abandoned when the family fell apart. Now a mother herself, Sandra is still deeply hurt and afraid of allowing her dying father to be a part of her life again. 

“A Heavy Heart is a bleak but powerful character study from the young German writer-director Thomas Stuber” - The Hollywood Reporter