Back in 2015, German Sebastian Schipper presented himself with the impressive crime drama “Victoria”. An exciting story about a young Spaniard in Berlin and a night that will change her life, shot in one continuous shot, was chosen as the best German film of the year, and Schipper also won the award for best director of the year. She had “Victoria” and three nominations in the European Film of the Year competition (film, direction and Laia Costa for Best Actress) and it was long overdue to shoot this German who entered the world of film as an actor to later start writing. and directing. Unfortunately, his next film, made in a German-British-French co-production, is still a significant step backwards because the combination of adventure drama and the coming of age film “Roads” turned out to be all that “Victoria” was not.
A film loaded with stereotypes, too general and expected situations that failed to rise above average. In addition, “Roads” got on my nerves and because it is a bit moralizing, docile and it would not be so problematic if the story here is not so ziheraška and conventional, without minimal risk, that it is safe to say that Schipper this time “failed” all football “. The story begins when a young Englishman Gyllen (Fionn Whitehead who starred in Nolan’s “Dunkirk” and then in the sf thriller “Voyagers”) steals his stepfather’s camper after an argument with his family during his 18th birthday celebration on a trip to Morocco. Gyllen will be joined along the way by his peer William (Stephane Bak), a Congolese refugee, and both aim to get to France. Gyllen wants to visit her father Paul (Ben Chaplin) who lives with a new girlfriend, and William wants to find an older brother who had previously fled the Congo and is believed to have ended up in Calais.
But the problem is that William does not have documents, and Gyllen does not have a driver’s license, so crossing the border from Morocco to Spain will be quite problematic. A middle-aged German hippie (Moritz Bleibtrau) will help them with that, but it turns out that he has some other plans and ideas, because he will immediately teach them the same camper in Spain. And so will this adventure in which two young men who turn out to have a lot in common and between whom a sincere friendship will develop, will try to reach the north of France. We will see during their journey all the splendor and misery of Europe, and the seemingly spoiled and rebellious young Englishman who thought his life sucks, will realize that there are those who are much, much worse. Also, young Congolese refugees will realize that the story here is not so straightforward and that Europe is not just honey and milk as it may have initially thought. All in all, quite mediocre and disappointing.
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