Review of Riekes Liebe

"Riekes Liebe", which means "Rieke's Love", or "Königskinder" is a German television film from 2001. It runs for 90 minutes as they usually do and it was the first effort as writer ant director apart from television episodes for Kilian Riedhof, who was around the age of 30 back then. And as much as I like some of his more recent stuff, I also cannot deny that he started his career on an incredibly high level here that most Hollywood directors can only dream of. The title character here is played by Laura Syniawa, but the really known names in here are the male supporting actors like Stetter, Milberg and 2-time Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz of course, even if the latter does not have a great deal of screen time here unfortunately. This is the story of Frederike, a young woman falling in love with her brother who really only sees sexual temptation and forbidden fruit in her. Yes this is a film about incest and it is about as great as another German small screen movie from back then dealing with this subject, namely "Der Kuß meiner Schwester" from one year earlier. But back to this one here: I think Syniawa was really amazing with her performance here and she really carries the film nicely. The way in which she pulls of the physically and emotionally broken parts is nothing short of brilliant. While missing a mother and suffering from a father who cannot love her as a daughter, but instead focuses on her professional sports career on an unhealthy level, she is breaking apart more and more on the inside and the eventually final attempt in which she tries to keep at least her brother from drifting away from her results in tragic consequences. Yes the ending is a bit melodramatic, but it felt realistic nonetheless and it was working well overall. Besides, we should be grateful these days for films that offer us something other than painfully unrealistic happy endings, which seems to be the common rule these days and it is one of the main reasons why German film is from many perspectives not in a very good state these days. Anyway, this movie from over 15 years ago already was quite a positive surprise for me and I highly recommend checking it out. A definite contender for Germany's best of the year 2001 and this is also because of the use of so many great songs and music in here, not just the recurring inclusion of the James Bond main theme.