Monolith Films

Stroszek is quite an absurd film. Its dark theme revolves around the inescapability of humanity in the face of our existence, filled with suffering, but its delivery is light and heartwarming. Despite all the bad that Bruno goes through, one can't help but laugh at it all. Herzog employs many techniques characteristic to the New German Cinema movement, letting his shots linger and giving the film room to breath within itself. A few scenes stand out amongst the rest, namely the premature ward, bank robbery, and ending, either aesthetically in the former's case and thematically in the latters'. Unfortunately, apart from those scenes, not much can be said about the film, at least on itself. But amongst Herzog's vast catalogue, we can see that the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts.