Ugly & Blind

Ferdi thinks he's ugly – but likes the fact Jona is interested in him. Maybe because she's blind. What Ferdi doesn't suspect: She's just pretending to be blind to be able to live cheaply in subsidized housing. How long can she maintain her charade? Can love, which is supposed to make you blind, even work out that way? Director Tom Lass takes a closer look, shooting with blind actors and old Berlin buddies, acting the lead himself – paying tribute to a way of life beyond our way of seeing the world. "Absurd wit, concise, improvised. A pointed satire on everyday situations. [...] The other, decisive component that characterizes Tom Lass' films: the big heart that Lass takes in both hands and runs off with. At least the films seem as if Lass is simply running off without any great plan. They are largely created through improvisation, with a story idea instead of a fully formulated script, with a small team, sometimes with digital cameras instead of expensive cameras. Their production conditions reflect the insecure but maximally free life situation of the protagonists. No one in German cinema is currently telling the story of the fears and desires of the under-35s as precisely as Tom Lass. Except, of course, for Tom's older and better-known brother Jakob ("Love Steaks", "Tiger Girl"). No one in Germany is making such energetic and energizing, convention-free cinema as the Lass Brothers." (Oliver Kaever, on: www.spiegel.de)