User Reviews

Let me start this review by telling foreign viewers something about the title "Global Player - Wo wir sind isch vorne". The notion behind the hyphen means something like "Where we are, is the lead". The "isch" is Swabian slang and informs audiences already about the regional background of the film. So, is this movie a global player? Probably not. It's not outstanding in any regard, but still an okay watch for slightly under 100 minutes. The highlight of the movie is easily Walter Schultheiß' performance. According to his profile page, he had his first TV appearances in 1963 and maybe there's something from even earlier which is not listed, but in any case 50 years later, he shows us that he's still on top of his game. He turns 90 next year, so made this when he was was 88 I guess. His character is a widowed family patriarch who took over the family company producing stockings and more from cotton many decades ago. Now his son is the boss and due to the economy crisis it seems almost impossible to keep the company going. They invested their own money already and still struggle to make gains and be able to pay the workers. Could the solution be a buy-in from China? Not to old Mr. Bogenschütz for sure. It was so funny how he kept emphasizing his right to veto.

While the economy references were executed nicely, the strongest of the film were the parts that focused more on family and how everybody has their own struggles. The black-and-white flashback scenes from Schultheiß' character were included with quite some attention to detail as well and clearly elevate the overall result. That includes especially the monologue on guilt and responsibility from the old man on the Nazi war crimes back in the first half of the 20th century and the memories of his wife shortly before his death which made me tear up a bit.

It's a film that could have been improved here and there in the first half and I don't really get the point of the other brother at all, but as a whole it's certainly worth watching. Most of the actors are quite experienced and nobody really lowers the bar or hurts the film. I'd like to give a special mention to Jinjin Harder finally, who is a great example here on how participants of trashy reality TV shows often have a lot more under the surface than one might initially think. Me being a trained linguist may be the reason for this emphasis. She's never acted in anything before and has considerable screen time here as an interpreter, the interface between the Chinese and the Swabians and she does a fine job, especially in the final scene with the workers talking in dialects and it's so funny to see how it's just too much for her. Also "Tatort" fans will probably enjoy this one as the film is packed with actors from the notable German crime series, most of all Ulrike Folkerts of course who's been a "Tatort-cop" for several decades already, since shortly before the Fall of the Berlin Wall.