Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageSalmonberries (1991)
Director: Percy Adlon
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Adlon wrote this slight, quirky but often moving film for singer-songwriter kd lang. Shot in English, set partly in the icy wastes of Alaska, partly in the wintry former no man's land of a newly reunified Berlin, it casts her as an orphaned Eskimo who hides his/her gender beneath layers of baggy clothes, and his/her emotional emptiness behind the scowling face of a Wild Child. Zech plays an exiled and widowed German librarian who befriends her and comes to terms, through their edgy relationship, with her own familial past. The fragmented early scenes fail to gel, but once lang lures Zech out of the warm interior of her cabin into the magical, frozen landscape, lang's haunting theme song ('Barefoot') helps to establish a more consistent, engaging tone. During a subsequent visit to Berlin, their ambiguous relationship trembles on the edge of lesbian love, but is complicated by Zech's coyness and lang's longing for maternal affection. A minor return to form for Adlon after Rosalie Goes Shopping; but the real praise goes to the two stars for breathing so much human warmth into some chilly scenes of winter.Author: NF
Cast & crew
Director: Percy Adlon
Producer: Eleonore Adlon
Cast: kd Lang, Rosel Zech, Chuck Connors, Jane Lind, Oscar Kawagley, Wolfgang Steinberg full cast
Duration: 95 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Has David Cronenberg turned tame?
Has director David Cronenberg veered too far from his radical and bloody roots with new film 'A Dangerous Method'?
The 10 worst date movies
Just in time for Valentine's Day, we present ten of the least romantic films ever made
Where to watch this year's Oscar-nominated films
Find out where to watch 2012's Oscar-nominated films in London cinemas
10 unlikely badboy biopics
Featuring Phil Collins, Jeremy Clarkson, Nick Clegg, David Starkey and a host of other unlikely subjects
Interview: Sean Durkin on 'Martha Marcy May Marlene'
The first-time director of the brilliant new thriller discusses religious cults and robot boxing
Pop-up cinema for Valentine's Day
Side-step romantic clichés with some alternative Valentine’s viewing
What do you think?
Post your review now