The enlightenment of a champion boxer turned bouncer
‘Herbert’ German film about a German boxing champion’s journey from glory to desperation, will be screened at 7 pm on November 29 at Goethe Hall at Gregory’s Road Colombo 7.
Directed by young German writer-director Thomas Stuber, the film is one in the series titled “Unexpected Strokes of Fate” which highlights individual persons who are confronted with different personal strokes of fate that turn their lives and the lives of their families and friends upside down. Each of them has his own way of dealing with the situation. Due to the thrilling and personally narrated stories the audience gets a deep insight into living with a psychological or physical illness and some different ways to deal with it. It is especially moving to see how all of the affected persons seem to learn what really matters in life.
In “Herbert’, a former East German boxing champion reduced to working as a bouncer and debt collector is forced to reflect on his life when he is diagnosed with a fatal disease.
The film is about Herbert Stamm, once famous as “The Pride of Leipzig”, left his greatest successes as a boxer behind him long ago. Now he earns his keep as a debt collector and bouncer while, on the side, he trains young, hopeful boxer Eddy. Herbert’s daughter hasn’t seen him for years, and he keeps his girlfriend at arm’s length too. He ignores the first signs of a serious illness until a diagnosis catches up with him: the gigantic man is suffering from ALS, an incurable disorder of the motor nervous system that is advancing relentlessly. Herbert tries to put the ruins of his life in order in a timely fashion.