Egoshooter

This is not the first film in which the protagonist records his surroundings obsessively on film or video, and in view of the oppressive result, let’s hope it is not the last. It turns out the procedure is far from spent. Maybe I should say that the video camera is the protagonist, but let’s say that both 19-year-old Jakob (an effective, almost nagging role by Tom Schilling) and his camera take centre stage. Jakob lives in Cologne in an apartment with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend Karo. Karo becomes pregnant and Jakob will have to move out. Jakob is not a very nice piece of work. He films people when they don’t want him to or aren’t even aware he’s doing it. He hangs around, investigates his own boundaries and seems to look for problems. On the other hand, it isn’t difficult to suspect that Jakob has a softer side, but provisionally he keeps himself well hidden behind his camera. The apparently nonchalant home-video pictures were made with great care and look very authentic. Entirely in line with the images filmed within the film, Egoshooter was partly made in improvisation. There was a small team with professional and amateur actors. The film was made as part of a series of digital features under the watchful eye of Wim Wenders and his Road Movies productions. (GjZ)