Colonia (2016)

Just perfect...

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Of course, this wasn't the first film to prove that shock value can be done well, but it is not common for one to use it. Shock value is usually looked down upon for reasons I'm too dumb to understand, and I approve of shock value for reasons people are too smart to understand. Colonia is based on a shocking true story about a real-life cult and it's horrific beliefs, and although we don't usually see anything, implication's enough to shock viewers, especially considering the fact that you know it's a true story. It's not shocking content-wise like A Serbian Film, it's shocking atmosphere-wise like Requiem For A Dream. Of course, it's nowhere near as good as Requiem For A Dream, yet on it's own it stands on it's two feet and confidently speaks it's opinion, using truth to convince you. I wouldn't say the film's anything special, but you'll probably remember it for a while. I think the editing could of been a bit better, but otherwise it was good. Go watch it, I think you'll like it.

Florian Gallenberger's "Colonia" is a hard - if certainly worthwhile - watch, and for obvious and less-obvious reasons.For a start, and above all, it presents a persuasive, apparently-true story that never actually happened at all. I do not know if any non-Chileans caught up in Pinochet's (American-backed) 1973 coup against the democratically-elected (if Soviet-backed) Allende could conceivably have been seized and tortured in the way that Daniel Bruhl's Daniel is in this film (however close to the Allende cause they may have been), and - since the character portrayed does not really exist - I am reasonably entitled to question the whole scenario!Equally, I do not know if any German girlfriend would be brave-crazy enough to join (for months on end) a bizarre Nazi-German cult operating in the south of Chile in order to find and help out (preferably even break out) the aforementioned torture victim, given that the (huge-area) cult HQ was surreptitiously also being used by Pinochet's thugs - in uniform and out of it. In this case, however, Emma Watson's first-sassy and then uber-restrained portrayal of Lufthansa flight attendant Lena Kortus is so earnest, and her young-love dedication to and affection for her beau so persuasive, that the fictional story does at least hold its own. This kind of thing ought to have existed, even if it didn't!Ironically, that (and even Watson's quite-specific, if considerable, beauty) makes handling this film more complex for the watcher, not less, since the fictional story may actually get in the way of the largely-true background circumstance, that the (Initially voluntary-membership) pseudo-religious cult under leader Paul Schafer (here played marvellously well - and hence as a repellent and disgusting figure - by Michael Nygvist) did exist, did apparently entail brainwashing and brutal treatment, the violation of a whole list of human rights and widespread child abuse by its founder, and did apparently have a blind eye turned to it by the German Embassy (though this seems almost impossible to credit from today's perspective).And that brings us to another problem with/for "Colonia", given that the cult - at Colonia Dignidad (of all names, hence the title of the film), is presented so shockingly, if at times almost matter-of-factly, that we as normal audience-members simply cannot fully take it in. It is so remote from our experience, so implausible in its reality, that we can't fully connect with the story (thankfully, one might say).Yet a further issue is that someone first picking up the film may be inclined to believe they are mainly in for an Allende-Pinochet story, and indeed the first part of the film would give them every reason to believe that. But then we home in on Schafer's Colonia, and our attention is divided between the awfulness of the colony's role in backing Pinochet, and it's more general and hideous awfulness.The whole "digestion" process is helped along a little by the excellent British actress Richenda Carey, who puts in the performance of her career as head of the women's part of the camp, Gisela. This foul character nevertheless evokes the occasional micro-moment of sympathy, and that is a huge acting achievement in itself. Fellow Brit Julian Ovenden also has a bit-part that is more than that, given the way his Captain Roman Breuer has such a major role in anchoring us ever-so-slightly in the real world (even though he presumably did not exist, and his character did not do what is portrayed here, as presumably (???) no real-life airline pilot actually did).While many of us were alive and kicking in '73, the remoteness of that year is made clear by James Blunt's song and the amazing recreations of the BBC's wonderful "Life on Mars". But it still beggars all possible belief that something like Colonia Dignidad could have operated at that time. It must be fiction, yet it isn't, while the key love story on which this film hinges ought to have existed, but didn't. And thus to the whole issue with this compelling, well-acted and amazingly portrayed story that is certainly impossible to ignore.

I was really impressed by this movie and I think, it's underrated at the moment. Emma Watson and Daniel Brühl did a great job there. You feel some kind of magic between them. Also the other characters are realistic and credible.After watching it I felt, like I was in the colonia myself

A Lufthansa stewardess arrives in Chile in the 70s. During street protests she sees her boyfriend on a platform next to some youth leader. She gets together with him. He makes posters for the leftist youngsters.When the military coup removes the socialist president, the boyfriend named Daniel, for some reason decides to go to the street with the girl, Lena, instead of staying home. There is unrest on the streets, the military/policy are rounding up people. Daniel decides to take pics and gets himself and Lena arrested. Everyone is taken to a stadium where a masked snitch starts picking out trouble-makers. Daniel gets picked out and is quickly put in an ambulance and driven away.Lena is eventually freed and finds out that Daniel was taken to Colonia Dignidad, some religious German community out in the country. So Lena decides to join them to rescue Daniel, who is indeed at the Colonia and is being tortured by the military to reveal his friends. He doesn't fold but instead pretends to be mentally challenged, so he gets a job on the Colonia assisting some metal worker at his shop.The Colonia is run by religious nut and homosexual pedophile Paul. He doesn't think much of women and claims to be able to smell their impure thoughts, actions, and lies. And he's actually pretty good at it.Lena life now is doing god's work--farming during days and peeling potatoes at night. Men and women are kept strictly separated. For months she doesn't see Daniel but eventually she does and they get together. Daniel has discovered a system of tunnels and underground rooms where the military interrogate and torture detainees. Their plan now is to escape not just the Colonia but Chile as well. But as it turns out, Paul is well-connected and his tentacles of power reach very high.What makes Colonia more interesting is that is based on reality. Of course to what extend the portrayal is realistic who knows. Unfortunately the dull, boring, and tedious life on the Colonia is all too realistically shown at length. For a good chunk of this movie nothing remotely interesting goes on. For the sake of realism the movie stays away from too much caricature. Paul could have been presented as some clownish nutcase, but he's not. In fact he's mostly absent in the movie as Lena has to deal with the somewhat cartoonish Gisela who's in charge of running the girls' quarters. The final act is very exciting though as our heroes are racing against the clock.