The Passenger *** (2014, Niklas Peters, Lynn Femme, Urs Stämpfli) – Classic Movie Review 12,839

Sexual and moral boundaries are dangerously crossed when a handsome stranger infiltrates the lives of two young Berlin arty folk, in writer/ director Tor Iben’s enjoyably provocative, sexually teasing 2014 German thriller film The Passenger.

While searching for an investment apartment in Berlin for his father to sublet, Nick (Niklas Peters) takes a room as lodger in the home of talented photographer Philipp (Urs Stämpfli), and meets his young actress friend Lilli (Lynn Femme). Both are easily seduced by Nick’s very evident charms, though Philipp, who takes pictures solely of men, explains that he has a girlfriend currently away abroad. Lilli is having terrible problems rehearing a script with lines from Oscar Wilde’s The Ballad of Reading Goal: ‘Yet each man kills the thing he loves, By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word, The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword!’

Lilli and Philipp are increasingly drawn into affection and passion – though not love it turns out – with the alluring visitor, but what they don’t realise is that Nick is a manipulative serial killer, an entirely plausible, handsome charmer oozing sex appeal.

The Passenger is chilling, beguiling and sexy, drawing you alluringly into its web just as the main character does with his victims. The film is quite intense and stylish, and really rattles along — it has to, it runs only a little over an hour, and, just when you think it couldn’t possibly do, having talked itself into a corner, it has a satisfying ending.

As a Tom Ripley-style sexy psycho, going instantly for charming to crazy, Niklas Peters really fits the bill, making the far-fetched story (what does he do with all his victims’ dead bodies?) seem entirely plausible, well at any rate entirely entertaining. It looks simple and straightforward, but it is quite complex and complicated, with a lot of mileage covered in an hour, begging for a second viewing.

Director: Tor Iben.

Writer: Tor Iben.

Stars: Niklas Peters, Lynn Femme, Urs Stämpfli.

Tor Iben was born in 1959 in Hagen, Germany, and is also known for Cibrâil [The Visitor] (2011), The Year I Lost My Mind [Jahr des Tigers] (2017), Orpheus’ Song (2019), Where Are You Going, Habibi? (2015) and Das Phallometer (2013).

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,839

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