Over five feature films to date, director Ulrich Köhler has quietly distinguished himself among the international arthouse with character-driven stories that are both formally rigorous and compulsively entertaining. A key member of the Berlin School, Köhler interrogates the neoliberal ideals of post-reunification Germany, but differentiates himself from his contemporaries with characterization rooted in his own upbringing, a sly sense of humor, and deep affection for popular culture.

Influenced by an adolescence spent moving between Africa, Germany, the United States, and France, Köhler forges characters who don’t identify with the places and spaces they inhabit. Estranged from the lifestyles of their contemporaries, these prickly, temperamental individuals are the structuring absence in their own lives, invariably followed by a cloud of bourgeois malaise that seems to only rain on them. No films better exemplify these wry, existential doldrums than the recently restored Bungalow (2002), and the Cannes hit In My Room. Despite these philosophical and political undercurrents, Köhler’s films maintain a light touch, exemplified by the deadpan provocations in Bungalow and galvanizing setpieces in In My Room (including a DJ Tiesto scored solo dance routine!). Together, they reflect a burgeoning master striding the line between bitter irony and refreshing candor.

Minh Duc Nguyen