The intoxicating, party-hard capital of
Germany goes straight to the head of Samuel Kay Forrest’s feature debut – and not in a good way
![HipBeat review – a male identity crisis in Berlin is pure cringe](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ca285963fd758d5f575637ee578c22aa5b05c421/319_0_4800_2880/master/4800.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctcmV2aWV3LTIucG5n&enable=upscale&s=217e7cd7a6f1057ea88881bb51bbd53e)
From Wings of Desire to Run Lola Run, from Cate Shortland’s
Berlin Syndrome to one-take wonder Victoria, quite a few film-makers have been seduced by the liberating possibilities of the German capital. But too much freedom can often equate to directionless freestyling – and the authority-resistant, hard-partying, gender-fluid spirit of Berlin goes straight to the head of
Irish writer-director Samuel Kay Forrest in this rambling and cringingly earnest feature debut.
Forrest plays wandering soul Angus, a twentysomething with a side-shave haircut and a thorny family background set on finding himself in the capital of Euro-hedonism. When he’s not railing against fascism and scarpering from the polizei, or oh-so-seditiously spray-painting his tag “HipBeat” around town, he has a budding relationship with local woman Angie (Marie Céline Yildirim). She’s unaware, though, that he’s sleeping around with members of both sexes – and, after a pep talk with an inspirational drag
Queen, becoming more intent on exploring the parts of himself in between.