Schwarze Schafe (2006) Reviews

• Close Encounters of the Worst Kind

  leaningt2007-01-09

  This is dirty, filthy and frenzied cinema, with an array of cataclysmic characters, hell-bent on creating a modern cult classic. The foul-stench of comical entertainment pollutes the air, but smells of fresh originality. The film's five ludicrous story lines brings the viewer close encounters of the worst kind of Berlin inhabitants, including Satan worshippers, sexually-frustrated teenagers, a drunk lottery winner and a foulmouthed tour guide. The vulgarity of it all will prompt the odd nauseous belch from audience members, but the humour outweighs the crudeness and Oliver Rihs' black and white film blinds with comic crudity and colour. Black Sheep may not break the bank at the Box-Office, but it is almost certain to cause a stir in DVD sales.

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• Radical and different

  philipp-672007-07-30

  "Schwarze Schafe" ("Black Sheep" in English) is radical, non pc and totally different to everything you saw before. This comedy is daring and definitely over the top. Real Berlin-Style. Done without any sponsorship, some actors played for free and the whole movie is shot in black and white. So be prepared to see some scene you didn't expect and which you might find awful. Cinema-lovers who love to see something new and different should hurry up to see this exciting German comedy and laugh their ass off! All the others should go and see Harry Potter 38 and eat some popcorn for a nice evening. They won't like the movie anyway.

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• truest view on Berlin

  ElenaTarasz2011-03-02

  8 reasons why this film is fantastic: 1 fantastic black humour 2 rad rock'n'roll soundtrack feat. king khan and BBQ show 3 it's black and white 4 the episodes are great and each one has the x factor - you could never decide which ones your favourite 5 its hilarious, even thinking of certain scenes makes me laugh 6 authentic acting - Marc Hosemann's nice ass 7 Böwe, Hosemann, Stadlober and Schilling at their best 8 overall: this film depicts Berlin in the truest way I've ever seen in a film (i was born, raised and spent my youth in this city)

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• English Press

  schwarzes_schaf30002007-08-19

  „Pure delight! The Berlin scene at it’s wildest, kinkiest, weirdest funniest best. The discovery of the season! Why aren’t there more films like this?!!” Ron Holloway - Moving Pictures „…a riot of filthy-minded fun … packed with affectionate digs and in-jokes about contemporary Berlin an the misfits an black sheep it’s powered by punk rock spirit and overheated libido … an anarchic multi-stranded odyssey that gives Clerks 2 a run for its money on the sexual deviancy front.” Wendy Ice - The Times „Very refreshing” Leo Bankerseb - De Filmkrant „Black Sheep was definitely the most provocative film I saw at the festival. Having said that I was, as a result, one of the shockingly hilarious. It genuinely received the greatest number of horrifies belly laughs of any press screening I attended.” Marshall Veniar - Glasgow Herald

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• Not a lot to do with realism

  Horst_In_Translation2017-04-22

  "Schwarze Schafe" or "Black Sheep" is a Swiss/German co-production in the German-language and this one had its world premiere back in 2006, so it is already over a decade old. The director is Oliver Rihs and he is also the writer, or I should say one of the writers because there are quite a few and it's certainly an example of too many cooks spoiling the broth, but I'll talk about the quality later. If you know a bit about German film, then you will find several familiar names and faces here, such as Milan Peschel, Marc Hosemann, Tom Schilling, Robert Stadlober, Mina Tander and also the late Eralp Uzun and Frank Giering. So even if I may not be that big on some of these, there is no denying that the cast offered the potential for a quality film here. But I don't think the premise was fulfilled at all. The comedy was rarely funny to be honest and all the talk about relationships for example never felt authentic, never felt in a way where I was thinking that I was watching actual characters and not actors. i don't think the cast is to blame, but the script perhaps. Anyway, this movie is almost entirely in black-and-white and runs for roughly 1.5 hours, And while there are a few b&w films from recent years (21st century) that I enjoyed quite a bit, this one here is certainly not one of them. I also felt that to be honest the movie had way too many characters for its own good and instead of elaborating and developing convincingly on a few, it introduced one after the next and as a consequence it all stayed above the surface and the film never felt like it had any depth, not to mention great depth. The first sentence in the plot summary here talks about the film exploring Berlin lifestyle and I as a Berlin citizen for almost three decades now cannot say the background and where the film plays made any lasting impression and I would certainly appreciate it more than those coming from other regions of Germany (or Switzerland/Austria or even the world). So overall I am definitely baffled by the film's awards attention as this was not a memorable watch at all. I am even sure that my rating of 2 stars out of 5 is still a bit on the generous side as there were moments and scenes that had me think about a one star rating. I don't recommend this film. It tries to be smart, hip and authentic, but it's none of all that. Watch something else instead.

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