Halbe Treppe

Grill Point is a marital drama set in Frankfurt an der Oder in the former GDR. Chris is a presenter at the local radio station and is married for the second time, to Katrin, who is friends with the perfume sales assistant Ellen. Ellen and her husband Uwe lead busy lives, for Uwe works long days at his outdoor snack bar, Café Halbe Treppe.

One day Ellen and Chris fall head over heels in love with each other, and without giving much thought to the consequences they begin an affair, which at first they manage to keep secret. It cannot go on like that, of course, and within a very short time both families are close to breaking up. Ellen and Chris decide to make a fresh start together, but is the affair really sparked by true love, or is it merely the expression of a midlife crisis?

You will search in vain if you are after pure escapism in Andreas Dresen's everyday drama, which depicts the lives of perfectly ordinary and thoroughly unglamorous people in a grey concrete suburb. It can get a bit too gloomy and German, but fortunately the film is not without humour. On the other hand, the director cannot be accused of sweeping anything under the carpet: it is genuinely not very pretty when couples split up.

The film works best when it keeps its feet firmly on the ground and does not try to play at documentary, as when the characters speak directly to the camera, or at magical realism, as when the band of musicians at the snack bar slowly grows in number.