Shown: January 6, 2018 at 6pm
Director : Percy Adlon
Country : Germany
Release Date : 1987
Duration : 95 mins
Language : German and English
Subtitles : Yes
WINNER : BEST FOREIGN FILM AT 1989 CÉSAR FILM AWARDS
German tourist Jasmin (Marianne Sägebrecht) and her husband fight while driving across the desert. She storms out of the car and makes her way to an isolated café, which is run by tough-as-nails Brenda (CCH Pounder), whose own husband is soon to leave as well. The café is visited by an assortment of colourful characters, including ex-Hollywood set-painter (Jack Palance) and a glamorous tattoo artist. With an ability to quietly empathise with everyone she meets at the café, helped by a passion for cleaning and performing magic tricks, Jasmin gradually transforms the café and all the people in it.
“A wish-fulfilling fable about culture-clash and the melting-pot … Adlon’s method is at once intimate, quirky and affirmative: precise evocation of place, expressive colours and a slow build-up of characters, allow him to raise the film effortlessly into realms of fantasy, shafted with magic and moments of epiphany.” (Wally Hammond – Time Out)