"Zugvögel - ... einmal nach Inari" or "Trains'n'Roses" or "Train Birds" is a German movie from 1998, so it will have its 20th anniversary next year. The writer and director is Peter Lichtefeld and it is probably by far the man's most known work. I do believe that the film has certainly its strengths in terms of the screenplay, but the best moments are not as memorable as the weakest moments unfortunately. Until the point where the boss gets killed right after the protagonist was in his office it is still somewhat believable, but honestly this is enough for the entire film. Then we have a cop who stops doing his job basically only to make friends and get closer to our hero and the ending with the truck route feels really false sadly. I know there is an emotional note to it, but it was Weber's big big dream to win this competition and then he sacrifices it for the sake of it. And he knew it all, even if it's just 3 minutes or so eventually looking at the smile on his lips. Quite a pity these moments sunk an otherwise solid film with decent performances. Król was one of Germany's biggest stars at that point and while he did not get the nomination this time with the German Film Awards, Lohmeyer (in his 30s) playing the cop did and he took home the prize too, one of the biggest awards of his career. It is a relatively short film at 80 minutes only, but that's not a problem at all. I think for the first half it was a pretty decent watch, but the turns they took in the second half just disappointed me to an extent where I could not recommend this movie and I don't think you should check it out. Thumbs down. There are many films that combine German characters in a bit of a culture clash with other countries, Asia pretty frequently for Doris Dörrie for example, and here we have the defining Finnish/German film perhaps. Quite a pity. Finland deserves better than this overall.
Review of Train Birds
Train Birds
(1998)
Pretty solid idea, but the film loses itself in unrealistic plot developments
27 March 2017
Warning: Spoilers