David Slama Movies

An ominous text message is followed by a horrific series of murders that confounds the authorities and strikes fear into the hearts of local high school students in director Andreas Prochaska's stalk and slash shocker. When a group of high school students all receive text messages promising that they will be dead in three days time, everyone assumes it's just a sick joke. But no one is laughing when one of the students is found dead the following morning, and when the body count continues to rise the surviving students must figure out who the killer is and what their motivations are before more lives are lost. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Moments from the lives of a large number of people who have nothing much in common except a strong desire to achieve their various personal goals and their attendance at a soccer match form the body of this film. It is unclear whether the director intended this as a political allegory or as a slice-of-life film. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this comedy, the inhabitants of a small Bavarian factory town have fallen on hard times because the factory owners got fed up with catering to the local union. Now the factory has been sold to a group of Chinese, who plan to break up the assembly line and ship the whole thing back to China. The former shop steward and his buddy, who wants to steal one crucial item of machinery, are asked to supervise the Chinese workers' efforts. The bulk of the satire here is aimed at the stodgy Bavarians and their distrust of these strangers. Meanwhile the two sly union men begin with a low opinion of their foreign guests but gradually learn to respect them. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

When Chris (Rolf Zacher) is behind on his rent and all the other monthly bills as well, his solution is to steal a car and go out for a "joy-ride." Along the way he picks up two new cohorts who are equally bent on trashing the world, and the trio runs into a stroke of luck when they spot an East German car -- with the horsepower of a lawn mower -- loaded with money for transfer across the border and chugging its way along the road. Fate seems to have cast wealth at the feet of the trio just for the taking, as they bumble their way into a robbery that will nevertheless end in tragedy. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The intention of writer and director Werner Grusch in making this documentary on the people of Cameroon, their tourists, and the interactions between the two groups seems to have been to criticize foreigners and a Euro-centric culture for harming the traditional values and customs of the ordinary people in this country. Grusch interviews a group of mainly French tourists for their reactions to Cameroon, and then he does the same with several Cameroonians. But poet René Philombe reads excerpts from his writings to open and close the documentary, excerpts that blame the Europeans for bringing crime -- including rape and fratricide -- to an otherwise innocent land, and bringing war in exchange for Cameroon's hospitality, a hospitality Philombe personalizes when he says he offered his "bed, wife, and home" to these strangers. These are remarkable accusations, especially for a feminist who would wonder why a man who "offers" his wife to strangers can turn around and say rape was not intrinsic to his culture. The documentary continues with visual images of ordinary people bargaining with tourists -- as they would in most countries, practicing their own traditions away from the "business" of tourism and generally seeming quite normal. Aside from the verbal diatribes, the visual evidence seems to favor Cameroon as a great place to visit. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This is the second comedy made by director Adolf Winkelmann about societal dropouts in the Ruhr industrial valley. Katlewski (Delle Quandt) has an acerbic way of pinpointing the buttoned-down minds of fellow workers who conform without question to their class-imposed parameters. Katlewski has had it with his wife who cannot let any neighbor surpass her in material gewgaws, and he has had it with his job as a coal miner as well -- quitting one day by just walking out. To survive, he finds odd jobs anywhere -- driving trucks, tending bars -- but he finally has a chance to find some gratification in life. He not only develops a relationship with a girlfriend who shares his views and understands him, but he craftily lifts enough money from a fat-cat who needs pruning anyway and pays off the debts his wife had accumulated for him. Perhaps Katlewski will be on another track entirely as he heads back to the miner's job he had recently abandoned. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

As in most industrialized countries in the early 1980s, small farmers like Eberhard Mies were struggling to remain solvent -- something that Mies clearly demonstrates is hardly possible without government subsidies. Director Thomas Giefer follows the 53-year-old Mies through his work schedule on his dairy farm (named "Kellers Hof") in the western side of Germany near the French border while Mies struggles with the question of whether or not to sell the farm or to accept subsidies to keep it going, a decision made all the more difficult because he can see that his three children (two boys and one girl) are not deeply attached to the land and the family traditions associated with it. The poignancy of aging adults unable to pass on their knowledge and appreciation of the past to a younger generation (which may one day face the same dilemma with their children), is paralleled by the real economic hardship of farming. Eberhard Mies' problem is one with no easy solution. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this comedy, when young Atzi, Lutz and Sulli are laid off from their extremely technical jobs in a Dortmund factory, the likelihood of their finding similar work is pretty remote. Instead, they steal a broken-down moving van with bad brakes and hare around the countryside along with a girl who hitchhikes a ride from them. This youthful film was a box-office hit in Germany at the time of its release. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This largely improvised film examines the family life of a girl who attempts suicide. It is the all-too common case of an extremely sensitive child who grows up in a perfectly decent family with rather commonplace values. Her parents are not very sensitive and, without intending to, ride roughshod over her hopes and dreams. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi