From Wings of Desire to Run Lola Run, from Cate Shortland’s Berlin Syndrome to one-take wonder Victoria, quite a few film-makers have been seduced by the liberating possibilities of the German capital. But too much freedom can often equate to directionless freestyling – and the authority-resistant, hard-partying, gender-fluid spirit of Berlin goes straight to the head of Irish writer-director Samuel Kay Forrest in this rambling and cringingly earnest feature debut.
Forrest plays wandering soul Angus, a twentysomething with a side-shave haircut and a thorny family background set on finding himself in the capital of Euro-hedonism. When he’s not railing against fascism and scarpering from the polizei, or oh-so-seditiously spray-painting his tag “HipBeat” around town, he has a budding relationship with local woman Angie (Marie Céline Yildirim). She’s unaware, though, that he’s sleeping around with members of both sexes – and, after a pep talk with an inspirational drag queen, becoming more intent on exploring the parts of himself in between.
