| Berlin Alexanderplatz | |
| Director: | Burhan Qurbani |
| Based On: | Berlin Alexanderplatz by Alfred Döblin |
| Narrator: | Jella Haase |
| Music: | Dascha Dauenhauer |
| Cinematography: | Yoshi Heimrath |
| Editing: | Philipp Thomas |
| Studio: | Entertainment One Germany Sommerhaus Filmproduktion Wild at Art ZDF |
| Distributor: | Paramount Pictures |
| Runtime: | 183 minutes |
| Country: | Germany Netherlands Canada |
| Language: | German |
Berlin Alexanderplatz is a 2020 drama film directed by Burhan Qurbani. The third adaptation of Alfred Döblin's influential 1929 novel of the same name, following one in 1931 and a 1980 fourteen-part miniseries, this iteration transposes the story to the modern day with an undocumented immigrant from West Africa in the central role.[1] [2] It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival.[3] [4]
Jessica Kiang for Variety detects some flaws in this update of Alfred Döblin's classic novel of masculine criminal crisis: ″Although promising a deep-cut dash of contemporary topicality by reimagining the main character as an undocumented African immigrant, there is the sense that the unimpeachable craft and performances — especially from rivetingly charismatic lead Welket Bungué — ultimately add up to just too slick a package. (...) For a film that is supposed to be a contemporary update, it can feel — especially in its ill-fated female characters, who are almost all either sex workers or one-night stands of Reinhold's — weirdly out of date. “Men like me have gone out of fashion,” says Pums at one point, and it will take more than a snazzy new set of clothes to complete the overhaul that Qurbani bravely, handsomely, but a little foolhardily attempts."[5]