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'Victoria,' A One-Shot Thrill Ride In Nocturnal Berlin

One of the strongest films from this year's Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival was Victoria, a one-take behemoth from German director Sebastian Schipper. The film is seeing its release in Minnesota this weekend, and it's playing over at the Edina Cinema. For anyone who was a fan with last year's Best Picture-winning Birdman, this should be something on your radar.

While Alejandro Iñárritu's Oscar-winner was made to look as if it was done in one shot, Victoria actually was filmed one, huge, 2-hour-and-10-minute take. What's incredible about Victoria is the momentum it sustains: the camerawork of Sturla Brandth Grøvlen is both athletic and fluid, and it provides you with a sense of intimate immediacy. It's as though you are a silent protagonist, running alongside the characters, experiencing a night in Berlin that is, at times, the best, and, at others, the worst.

The story revolves around the titular character, a young Spanish girl (Laia Costa, who has the look of a young Bjork). In a club, she meets the charismatic and mischievous Sonne (Frederick Lau), who's celebrating a birthday party with his best friends. Victoria reluctantly wanders around the city with these drunk guys, exploring rooftops, swiping beers from convenience stores, experiencing what they call "the real Berlin."

Just as Victoria and Sonne start to move beyond flirting, one of Sonne's friends, "a good guy who's done bad things," gets a phone call from someone he knew in prison. He owes this man a favor, and immediately has to go deal with him. Victoria peaces out at this point because she has to work in the morning, but Sonne ends up being forced to rope her in to help with this unexpected chore, which turns out to be a bank robbery.

The entire episode of this robbery is a visual and emotional whirlwind. Adrenaline, euphoria, chaos, fear: all of these feelings are captured and explored as Victoria and her friends hit the bank, make off with the money and try to blend back into the real Berlin. Of course, they aren't that lucky.

While Victoria's runtime is a bit exhausting, and some scenarios and conversations get a little tiresome, Schipper somehow exhibited incredible control of film's pace and tone. One trick he employs all throughout is washing transitional scenes in gorgeous music from composer Nils Frahm. All sound fades but for these beautiful songs, and they highlight the humanity of the film's obviously flawed characters. In these moments, we see Victoria and her new friends as both good and bad, attractive and repellant, beautiful and foolish. As such, it's simply remarkable just how much Schipper makes us feel by spending one night with these young people. It makes us think: Are they really that different from us?

Victoria is playing at the Edina Cinema.

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