“Magical Mystery – Die Rückkehr des Karl Schmidt“ is the best book written by Element of Crime frontman Sven Regener in my humble opinion. Things aren’t going so well for Karl. He is the artist sidekick of Mr. Lehmann in “Herr Lehmann” who has a nervous breakdown in the middle of the fall of the Berlin wall. In MAGICAL MYSTERY we meet him in an assisted living Hamburg flatshare called “Clean Cut 1” with ex junkies called. His is set free from his routine when he gets a call from his old Berlin friends who hit it big with techno label Bumm Bumm Records. They are going on tour and need someone to drive them across Germany. That’s exactly what happens, in the book as well as the film. Instead of the mandatory therapy vacation to Lüneberg Heath, Karl (Charly Hübner) drives to Berlin andtakes a tour bus all across Germany. He drives label head Ferdi (a blonde Detlev Buck) and a cheerful, colorfully dressed techno troupe who behave like a group of ADHD kindergartners. Karl, who is supposed to stay away from stress and drugs, has to keep it all together and social worker Werner (Bjarne Mädel) is hot on his heels.

The film is not as moving as the book, which follows Karl as he walks a tightrope that stops short of leading to insanity, but you do leave the cinema in good spirits. Arne Feldhusen (Stromberg) films the trip to filthy clubs and cheap motels as a happy revue with an extremely lovable cast. The standouts are Charly Hübner who manages to boil down his detailed, laconic inner monologues to a raised eyebrow, Bjarne Mädel who plays a defeated social worker, and Sarah Viktoria Frick as party veteran Sigi.

Hendrike Bake (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy