Orphea in Love

Axel Ranisch is one of the more idiosyncratic figures of Germany's moving image world. He jumps back and forth between educational television (masses of episodes for the wildly beloved series Löwenzahn) and unusual cinema projects like his free-floating, improv-driven film school thesis debut Dicke Mädchen (2011) or the perplexingly camp-happy children's adventure Reuber (2013). Then followed a jump into crime entertainment with episodes for the back home cultishly revered cop show Tatort, thrown into the mix for good measure. And, as if this wasn't off the charts enough, he also regularly directs opera productions for some of Germany's most prestigious houses.

Orphea in Love, now, fuses many of these diverse forays for a singular piece of musical theatre cinema. Structurally a musical or operetta, it features famous opera tunes paired with modern classical ballet choreographies. Befittingly, the title might insinuate a version of Jacques Offenbach's 1858 Orphée aux enfers (we have that somewhere else in the programme, though!), but the story of young, multi-job hassled Nele, her dream of opera stardom, and her love for dancer Kolya feels in its razzmatazzy mix of realism and kitsch simultaneously closer to Flashdance (1983; Adrian Lyne) and the average Lady Gaga music video. Wow. WOW!

– Olaf Möller