Film Review: The Wondrous World of Laundry
By Ray Bennett, Февраль 12, 2009 06:22 ET
Bottom Line: Pedestrian documentary about women who clean Berlin's hotel linen
Berlin International Film Festival -- Forum
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BERLIN -- The title of German director Hans-Christian Schmid's documentary "The Wondrous World of Laundry" sounds intriguing in an odd sort of way but there's really not a lot to laundry and nothing wondrous about it.
Had Schmid set out to explore in an inventive way what happens to the dirty linen from Berlin's five-star hotels, that might actually be interesting. But he focuses instead on the ordinary lives of three Polish women who work at the laundry that cleans it all.
Filmed without much attempt to make interesting images, the film is a dull piece of television reportage that is unlikely to make much headway beyond local territories and raise much of a fuss even there.
Honorable and hardworking as they are, the women's lives are quite dull and while they reflect on dashed childhood aspirations they amount to little more than one wishing she could have been a doctor.
The film shows a brief interview with one of the entrepreneurs who set up the laundry just across the border with Germany to take advantage of the steam that is a by-product of a local power plant but, more important, the cheaper labor in Poland.
The apparent intent is to show that the workers are exploited but there's little to suggest what they might do for employment if the laundry wasn't there. The truth is that the film fails to make their fate of interest one way or the other.
Production companies: 23/5 Filmproduction, RBB / Arte
Director: Hans-Christian Schmid
Screenwriter: Hans-Christian Schmid
Producers: Britta Knoller, Hans-Christian Schmid
Director of photography: Bogumit Godfrejow
Editor: Stefan Stabenow
Sales agent: Bavaria Film International
No rating, 97 minute
источник
A Piffl Medien release of a Bavaria Film presentation of a 23/5 Filmproduction production, in association with RBB, ARTE. (International sales: Bavaria Films Intl., Munich.) Produced by Britta Knoeller, Hans-Christian Schmid. Directed, written by Hans-Christian Schmid.
With: Beata Ciesla, Andrzej Zielinski, Klaudia Ciesla, Kamil Ciesla, Lidia Michalczyk, Monika Ulatowska-Welpa, Marta Ulatowska, Janusz Welpa, Paulina Naumowicz.
Bleak present-day realities clash with dreams of a brighter future in docu "The Wondrous World of Laundry," which examines the drab but dignified lives of several femme workers at an industrial laundry in Poland. Returning to the German-Polish border area of his 2003 fiction feature "Distant Lights," Teuton helmer Hans-Christian Schmid (who directed Berlin competish title "Storm") finds himself in familiar territory both stylistically and story-wise. Fests with a sociopolitical slant will want to take "Laundry" for a spin.
Situated in a Polish border town some 80 miles from the German capital, the Fliegel laundry washes 50 tons of linens a day, mainly for high-end Berlin hotels. Labor-- and pay -- is so cheap there even the local mayor has to moonlight as a gas-station attendant, and fortysomething protags Monika and Beata clearly have trouble making ends meet. Relegating their commentary largely to v.o., Schmid leaves ample room for the neat handheld images of his regular lenser Bogumil Godfrejow, clearly a Lodz alumnus. Larger issues, such as immigration and a lopsided "united" Europe, arise organically from the material without eclipsing the human stories. Classical score, mainly Ravel, adds a wistful touch.
More than one option
(Person) Andrzej Zielinski
Actor, Music Performer
(Person) Andrzej Zielinski
Production Designer
More than one option
(Film) Storm
David Palffy, Michael Kevis
(Film) Storm
Paul L Nolan, John Kewalzick
(Tv) Storm
Camera (color), Bogumil Godfrejow; editor, Stefan Stabenow. Original title: Die Wundersame Welt der Waschkraft. Polish, German dialogue. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Forum), Feb. 10, 2009. Running time: 93 MIN.
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