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Jerichow

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Germany · 2008
1h 33m
Director Christian Petzold
Starring Benno Fürmann, Nina Hoss, Hilmi Sözer, André Hennicke
Genre Drama

'Jerichow' is a classic film-noir-infused love triangle that pits a warm yet brutish Turkish-German proprietor, Ali, with a young and solemn veteran of the Afghan-Soviet war, Thomas. Set in contemporary Germany, their story begins as an unlikely friendship and devolves into a grimly paranoid escapade when Thomas is introduced to Ali's wife, Laura.

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What are critics saying?

70

The New York Times by A.O. Scott

No one in Jerichow is entirely deserving of sympathy, which gives the film a detached, clinical feeling underlined by the director’s habit of observing emotions rather than evoking them.

70

Salon by Andrew O'Hehir

Told in lean, tense cinematic gestures, Jerichow also captures a social portrait of newly multicultural Germany, at least as it extends into the country's forgotten rural interior.

80

Variety by Derek Elley

A tightly constructed "dramatic thriller" in which the tension comes as much from what the characters are thinking as from what they end up doing, Jerichow again confirms writer-helmer Christian Petzold ("Yella," "The State I Am In") as a world-class talent who remains underappreciated beyond Germany.

70

Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas

Petzold, who has a crisp style and sharp sense of the visual, is too talented and imaginative to allow his film to become predictable. Rather, Jerichow offers implicit, sardonic social comment as well as a compelling playing out of the eternal triangle.

80

Village Voice by Melissa Anderson

Jerichow forgoes the prolonged double-crosses of "The Postman Always Rings Twice," its simpler ending made all the more powerful--and a little heartbreaking.

83

The A.V. Club by Noel Murray

The movie ends abruptly, setting up an epilogue that viewers will have to provide for themselves. Jerichow's sparseness, tiny cast, and minimal plot can make the film seem a little elusive, but there’s a certain elegance to Petzold's concision, too. He shows all he wants us to see.

75

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

Petzold, who also wrote the script, doesn't make level one thrillers, and his characters may be smarter than us, or dumber. It's never just about the plot, anyway. It has to do with random accidents, dangerous coincidences, miscalculations, simple mistakes. And the motives are never simple.

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