Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"The Jerusalem Syndrome" is a German 2013 thriller movie, which runs for roughly 90 minutes and deals with a story of two sisters. One of these joins a mysterious sect in which she is seen as the new Mother Mary, who will give birth the the next redeemer. The other sister realizes how dangerous the group is and tries to get her out of there. The two main characters are played by Jördis Triebel and Leonie Benesch. Triebel just is not a great actress in my opinion even if the German Film Academy wants us to think otherwise. She was intended to be likable here and in most of her other works, but to me she simply isn't. Benesch played her part very well in "Das weiße Band" and has her moments in this one too. The cast is a mix of German and Israeli actors. If you are interested in German cinema, you may have heard about Redl and Sadler as well. However, even the greatest actors could not have turned this into something meaningful as the script is simply too weak. One particularly cringeworthy scene is when the male main character reminds the password "tsimtsim". Or with the Middle East background, they had to thrown in some random terrorist plot references too. And the suspected romance part between the two main characters does not help either, especially the comment from the woman who takes care of Triebel's character at the end was downright cheesy. This script is particularly disappointing looking at how one from the two writers has worked on "Das Experiment" in the past, one of Germany's most famous films of all time.The film's director is Israeli-born, so has a perfect background for the story, but has a prolific body of work in terms of German television, including several "Tatort" episodes. Most of his other projects are probably more worth a watch than this one here. Not recommended.
