The man from the other side review [Netflix]

Director: marcus lim | Screenplay: marcus lim | Cast: Mari Bensel (Sophie Zimmermann), James Carney (Engelsman), Nils Schulz (Dieter Schäffer) ea | Time to play: 85 minutes | Year: 2019

The profession of ‘Romeo’ encompasses more than roses and serenades: this type of spy was used by the East German Stasi to seduce West German women in exchange for politically sensitive information. low budget movie The man from the other sidemanages to catch the historically interesting topic, but the movie’s biggest mystery is never answered: what is this movie doing on Netflix?

West German secretary Sophie Zimmerman succumbs to a new form of cold war: sexual espionage. After World War II, West Germany suffers from a shortage of men, making single women in high positions a popular target for Romeo’s spies. Secret agent Dieter Schäfer won the heart of the shy Sophie and convinced her to share top-secret West German government information with the Stasi. However, this goes horribly wrong when the information transfer goes awry and Sophie is locked in a seedy basement by a faceless organization.

With the spy war between the Federal Republic and the GDR, the filmmakers have tackled a fascinating topic little known outside the German borders. Led by half-German, half-Singaporean director Marcus Lim, they have made the most of a small budget. The gritty, dark style captures the grim spy world of 1970s Germany well, but it can’t hide all the shortcomings of a low-budget film.

Possible on several levels The man from the other side It doesn’t quite measure up to its Netflix counterparts in terms of casting, production design, and script. The viewer first has to wrestle with a slow start with lots of textual explanations and excruciatingly long dialogues to place all the pieces on the board. When Sophie’s attempts to escape from the basement are interrupted by her suspicions of other characters, the double game can really begin. The endless explanations give way to the review of all the lies and deceit that keep Sophie in her clutches.

The man from the other side It starts out as an unrealistic low-budget movie, but halfway through it turns into a passable thriller, where no one can be trusted and the biggest trap turns out to be love. Unlike blockbusters like Beginning in no time to die shows the little film that it doesn’t take a lot of resources for a spy movie to stage Cold War intrigue. It garnered recognition for the film at multiple film festivals and even made the rounds in Singapore theaters, but it’s in danger of losing its shine on a streaming service like Netflix.

the place of The man from the other side in addition to similar movies or series on the streaming service, such as the recent spy series [i[Kleo[/i], plays into the game of unfair comparisons. Experimentation is rewarded at film festivals for creators with a small wallet, but on a streaming service, the viewer is ruthless in clicking through a cheap movie with a slow start. it is fate that The man from the other side it’s probably destined for the small screen, when that shouldn’t apply to a patient movie buff.

The man from the other side can be seen in Netflix.