Name: Die Parallelstrasse
Genre: Drama
Duration: 1 h 26 min
Rating: 7.3
Cast: Friedrich Joloff, Ernst Marbeck, Wilfried Schröpfer

An example of an early 1960s experimental 'documentary' feature film pre-dating the new wave of West German cinema by several years, and directed by Czechoslovakian born Ferdinand Khittl. Here 5 men (with an overseer) assess and order documents on 'a person in question'. Numbered films (in colour) are shown to the men of various aspects of the world we live in to an evocative narration. These film documents are described by the overseer (in relation to the 5 men) as 'mirrors of their own existence'. Seeming deliberately incomplete, with a kind of poetic stream of consciousness narration during the colour films (which contrast with the filmed in black and white prosaic conversations of arguments and debates of the 5 men and the overseer), the screenplay by Bodo Bluthner is often confusing, full of repetition, reversal (the slaughterhouse as birthing house), and can be seen and interpreted as a lot of things - a meditation and interrogation of the world, a rumination on meaning, order, categorisation, a comment on German bureaucracy, objectivity and subjectivity in film, surface and reality, the link between things, perspective and death. Although the images of Ronald Martini's cinematography are watchable, we're not sure how accurate (or lost in translation) the English subtitles are, as we seem to have a certain amount of incoherence and non sequitur here - but perhaps that is the point. How do we understand and interpret life and the world we live in? Take the parallel road.

German cinema is famous for its historical depth, expressionist aesthetics, and social-political engagement. It has moved from Expressionism to political reckoning, from New German Cinema's raw realism to contemporary genre experiments. Its legacy lies in both technical innovation and deep explorations of history, morality, and philosophy.

The drama genre is a broad category that features stories portraying human experiences, emotions, conflicts, and relationships in a realistic and emotionally impactful way. Dramas delve into the complexities of human life, often exploring themes of love, loss, morality, societal issues, personal growth, with the aim to evoke an emotional response from the audience by presenting relatable and thought-provoking stories.

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Feature-documentary "pointing up a thousand facets of this world and probing to determine what may lie beneath the surface".

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The Parallel Street

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