IN MY ROOM

Ulrich Köhler's new film begins with an act of unwitting erasure, with its gruffy protagonist cruelly mistaking the crucial for the superfluous in his video interviews with German politicians. It's the prelude to the strangest of post-apocalyptic tales, in which humanity has seemingly ended, and Armin finds himself the only survivor. Exchanging a life of professional and personal up-and-downs for a simpler focus on surviving and building things with his hands, a predicament in which he surprisingly thrives, Armin has to confront his solitude as the last man on earth, until a strange encounter once again changes things.   

Under an unassuming guise, Köhler has crafted a powerful parable of resilience and anthropological reversals, capable of staying in the viewer's consciousness long after its conclusion. It does so through the jarring contrast between its two parts, and through a series of largely wordless sequences that are as much of an ode to purpose and precision as the film itself. In the demanding lead role, Hans Löw quietly transforms himself in the most believable and profoundly human way.