The Goldfish: "A mainstream comedy with well placed gags"
"The Goldfish" (theatrical release: March 21) is the directorial debut of Alireza Golafshan (born 1986). The comedy attracts with an outstanding cast - and Tom Schilling (37), Jella Haase (26), Kida Khodr Ramadan (42), Birgit Minichmayr (41), Axel Stein (37) and Co. keep their name. Because they can do comedy.
The same applies to Luisa Wöllisch. The 22-year-old actress with Down syndrome is a natural part of the motley crew. In an interview with spot on news, Kida Khodr Ramadan enthuses about the filming: "It was so nice to see that Luisa is a mega-intelligent girl, she was always well prepared for her lyrics and played her role so well that she would be cast on normal roles and not always on roles with disabilities. "
That's what it's all about in "The Goldfish"
Portfolio manager Oliver (Tom Schilling) is a paraplegic after a car accident. Three months of rehab should prepare him for a life in a wheelchair. But he wants to get out of this "disabled prison" with bad internet as fast as possible.
In search of the strongest Wi-Fi signal, he meets an oblique handicapped person, the "goldfish group": the blind cynic Magda (Birgit Minichmayr), the autistic "Rainman" (Axel Stein), Michi (Jan Henrik Stahlberg) and Franzi (Luisa Wöllisch). They are cared for by the passionate and gracious educational teacher Laura (Jella Haase) and Heilerziehungspfleger Eddy (Kida Khodr Ramadan), who hates his job.
In addition to his disability, Oliver struggles with the threat that his Swiss safe deposit box will be blown up with tax-free assets. But then he has an idea: on a trip with a disabled bus he wants to smuggle the black money over the German-Swiss border.
"You better say the wrong word"
The multi-award winning Berlin actor Tom Schilling is rarely booked for the comic book. The drama genre dominates his filmography. Wrong, as he proves with "The goldfish". Crucial for his pledge but was "the good script," as he tells spot on news. "It's a mainstream comedy with well-placed gags that tells a great universe between the lines," he concludes, but one can only agree.
With the "great universe" he also refers to the insecurity that many have in dealing with disabled people. "Of course I understand it when you say that you should pay attention to the language, it's also a great tool, but if it makes people feel totally insecure and silenced, it does not help anyone you better say the wrong word, but at least you say something to each other, I think, "Schilling encourages.
Conclusion
The film is at first good, sometimes predictable entertainment, but in the aftermath, the hearty story unfolds properly. The summery pictures - "we had 40 degrees partly", so Kida Khodr Ramadan - you do not get so fast out of your head. And if the comedy with one or the other viewers ensures that the handling of people with disabilities is blocked less by fear of contact, as the creators want in unison, much is achieved.
