Passages

Semi-autobiographical, semi-documentary debut from a Turkish-German director. Arslan constructs an almost plotless panorama of life inside Germany's biggest rehab centre for physically disabled kids, a characterless, over-large facility which inevitably creates more problems than it solves. The film's vignettes detail most aspects of the kids' lives: boredom, dreams of escape, fights, sexual approaches (straight and gay). The grim conclusion is that the place is full of passages leading nowhere. The visual flair and formal control justify comparisons with early Herzog movies.