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Four Minutes (15)
IMAGINE a cross between Shine and Prisoner: Cell Block H. Next, add doses of Ronald Harwood's Taking Sides and Bond villain Rosa Klebb, make it all in German and then add subtitles - including the worst curse of the English language.
But even that won't quite prepare you for this story which, in a very European way, finds a different way of expressing a battle of wills than Hollywood's standard bullet-ridden macho nonsense.
Written and directed by Chris Kraus, Four Minutes stars Monica Bleibtreu as Traude Kruger, a strict piano teacher faced with the murderous instincts of Jenny Von Loeben (Hannah Herzsprung, playing piano herself). Can she, against all the odds, make Jenny realise her potential?
The spectacular climax might not be quite what you're expecting, but it's just about worth the laboured 115-minute journey through their back stories.
Four Minutes is showing on Wednesday and Thursday at the MAC.
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