Germany / France • 2016 • 80m •    • Directed by: Tarek Ehlail. • Starring: Benno Fürmann, Sascha Alexander Gersak, Ayo, Kida Khodr Ramadan, Stipe Erceg, Denis Moschitto, Anna Bederke, André Hennicke, Tony Harrisson, Katharina Heyer, Surho Sugaipov, Peter Eberst, Joshua Fischer. • Music by: Alec Empire.
    In 2025, the refugee problem became has more acute with tens of thousands of people waiting in ghettos for the decision about their destiny. When one of the refugees is killed in a police raid, the tensions in the gettos begin to rise breaking point dangerous levels. Volt, who is part of the transnational police force tasked with controlling the refugees, is caught in the middle...
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"Volt" is a German movie from 2016, so still relatively new, and this is the third effort as writer and director by Tarek Ehlail. I have seen his previous two as well and must say thatg i was not a fan of either, on the contrary I thought one was weak and the other was bad. his one we have here is certainly not his worstg work, but still a weak movie and improvement is hardly visible as he should get more experienced now. Then again, he is still relatively young, in his late 30s now, so maybe progress will come cooner or later. The title of the film and also the yellow-black poster look as if this is a movie about something like the energy crisis or an electricity collapse in a big city or annything, but no it is not. The protagonist's name is just Volt, a police officer and even if they are plays on words with his name referring to electricity, it is never a key plot element. Instead it tries to be something in between a character study, an insight into police life and also something about refugees, even if not as much as you'd expect given how relevant the topic is here in Germany. The main character is played by Benno Fürmann and German film buffs will definitely recognize him. Supporting players like the stunning Bederke, Ramadan, Moschitto, Hennicke and Erceg are also no nobodies. It is a good cast without a doubt. Sadly, most of these actors were wasted for characters that had hardly any material with which they could shine. I found this especially significant for Ramadan and Hennicke as I like these two, maybe Moschitto as well. Really a pity. They could have made the film more interesting, at least to me, as I must admit I have never been a huge Fürmann fan. Sure he brings the scary looks and angry eyes as he always does, but that is not enough. The way his character is written as somebody who is extremely ruthless, also violent, but still eventually offers his softer side when he meets the victim's brother did not feel too credible to me. Maybe they should have taken the route without shades and just given him a 100% villain role and it would have worked out better. In general I must say that what I mentioned about his softer side is when the film decreases in quality. How he falls for the woman eventually did not fit the character at all or how he has his secret with him and the suspense about what happens if she ever finds out was minimal. Much less than it could have been. So from that perspective you could say indeed this was a very poor Monster's Ball. And sadly the film does not make a bigger impact in any other fields really, certainly not as a sociocritical movie, but admittedly this it never really wants to be. It's more about being a character study and even if the film does not succeed too much there, at least the mentality within the police felt realistic to watch somehow. Not always, but often enough. As a whole, it is not a good or recommendable film, but not a failure either. I was still glad it's a relatively short film at 80 minutes and that includes credits already. I guess those who like Fürmann can give it a go.
Review by Horst_In_Translation from the Internet Movie Database.
