Hurensohn

What will the adolescent son of a Yugoslavian mother in Vienna feel, when he finds out that she has been a prostitute since before he was born and not a waitress, as everybody told him? This might be an interesting question, and a very good starting point for a book or a film.

Unfortunately, writer-director Michael Sturminger doesn't have a lot to say about the topic. He is obviously a good director, impressively guiding the young boys who play the child Ozren and presenting good-looking, sometimes even beautiful images. The problem is that he completely fails as a screenwriter. His dialogues are stale and therefore really embarrassing. The story lacks ideas and surprise on the one hand, while being painfully exaggerated on the other hand. And the Vienna demimonde is presented full of clichés.

The leading actors are not bad but they appear to be because the things they have to say are unnatural and hackneyed. Hearing Ozren's uncle and aunt droning out their pearls of wisdom makes you want to escape.

Maybe the novel was bad. I don't know. But at least, Sturminger should have left the adaptation to somebody else and applied for a job as a soap opera writer.