The brilliant Sabine Timoteo stars as an ad exec in
Germany whose husband agrees to work for an anti-immigration party
There’s an intriguing touch of Michael Haneke about this refrigerated drama from Ronny Trocker, which begins with a family walking in on burglars at their holiday home. Nothing is stolen, no one is injured; no harm done. But the intrusion disrupts their comfortable lives in ways that are hard to explain: it yanks away the blanket of privilege that keeps them warm and at ease in the world.
Human Factors is a film that gets by on intelligent performances and an unnerving, tense mood. Sabine Timoteo is brilliant as Nina, the owner of an advertising agency in Germany with her husband, Jan (Mark Waschke). They have their offices in a converted warehouse, staffed by ambitious-looking millennials. Nina is the creative brains, while workaholic Jan deals with the clients. On the sly, he has agreed to run the
election campaign of a controversial populist political party, which looks set to run on an anti-immigration agenda. Nina is enraged by his dishonesty and betrayal: they’ve always vowed not to touch politics.