Next Door
Next Door
Daniel Brühl’s directorial debut is spot-on: Berlin, the Prenzlauer Berg district. When this summer day is over, nothing will ever be the same again. Only Daniel doesn’t know that yet. The protagonist of this tragicomic scenario is as unsuspecting as he is accustomed to success. His loft apartment is stylish and so is his wife, and nanny has the children under control. Popping into the bar on the corner, he finds Bruno sitting there. Bruno has been waiting for this moment for a long time. And so this eternally overlooked man – one of reunification’s losers and a victim of the gentrification of what was once East Berlin – takes his revenge. With Daniel as his target.
Photo: Reiner Bajo
Brühl’s directorial debut is spot-on. Based on an idea by the director and written by Daniel Kehlmann, the script combines razor-sharp dialogue with oddball bar-room banter. Pitting global versus local, and hand-luggage-only travel versus eavesdropping from the courtyard window, the film celebrates this intimate corner-pub chamber piece as if it were a genre of its own. The character psychology is perfect and the verbal spats never-ending. Peter Kurth is especially nasty as Bruno, and Daniel Brühl is deliciously self-deprecating.
A lot of the details are true, but I wanted to avoid giving it an embarrassing autobiographical “coming to terms with my past” touch. It’s always clear that this is a comedy and that I’m looking at myself with a wink and not taking myself all too seriously.
From the start, the film was going to be about gentrification, about someone who feels like an invader. And then a confrontation between two men from completely different social backgrounds. A duel, like in a Western, taking place in a bar.
I wanted to look at the superficiality of my world. The Instagram world, the filtered purity thing, that we have to deal with. And then someone is stripping all those filters away and telling you the truth straight to your face.
Production Details
- Genre
- Black Comedy
- Production
- GER, 2021
- Theatrical Release
- 15 June 2021
- Premiere
- 71. Berlinale 2021
- Director
- Daniel Brühl
- Cast
- Daniel Brühl, Peter Kurth, Rike Eckermann, Aenne Schwarz, Gode Benedix, Vicky Krieps, Mex Schlüpfer, Steffen Scheuman a. o.
- Cinematography
- Jens Harant
- Editing
- Marty Schenk
- Screenplay
- Daniel Kehlmann nach einer Idee von Daniel Brühl
- Score
- Moritz Friedrich, Jakob Grunert
- Production Design
- Susanne Hopf
- Costume Design
- Lisy Christl
- Production
- Amusement Park Film GmbH
- Coproduction
- Warner Bros. Entertainment, Gretchenfilm GmbH, Erfttal Film, Amusement Park Film
- Distribution
- Beta Cinema
