A film projector repairman and a recently divorced psychologist – who has just driven his car into a river in a half-hearted suicide attempt – end up on the road together, winding through the back lanes of provincial Germany.
The last in Wim Wenders’ Road trilogy is a luminously shot black and white exploration of loneliness, friendship and the quietly powerful drift of time and landscape.
Wenders reunites with his favourite actor Rüdiger Vogler (Alice in the Cities, Until the End of the World) as the wandering repairman Bruno who comes across Robert, played by Hans Zischler (Munich, Clouds of Sils Maria).
As both men travel together visiting dilapidated rural cinemas it becomes increasingly clear that, as well as providing a gently insightful portrait of friendship, the film is also a meditative tribute to film itself (with a dedication to Fritz Lang).
For Wenders, the ‘road movie’ becomes a merging of European sensibilities with the ambivalent influence of American culture. From the chance encounter of friendship to the unresolved contemplation of life as it passes by – connection lies in movement, from the miles of road, to the reels of film…