Suspense and depth: why the thriller "Islands" is worth seeing "Islands" has been nominated four times for the German Film Award, including in the top category "Best Film". The thriller cleverly plays with film noir motifs, from which it develops the subtle story of a search for meaning.
Tom lives and works where others go on vacation: on the Canary Island of Fuerteventura. He is a tennis instructor in an all-inclusive hotel, and his everyday life is not quite as paradisiacal as many of his guests imagine. After all, the daily routine takes hold here too.
Director Jan-Ole Gerster saw and above all heard a tennis instructor in a similar place a good ten years ago: "If you listen to it for two weeks, it takes on a different quality and develops like a sound installation that also tells something of the monotony of his life. This character inspired me so much, as did the landscape on Fuerteventura."
And with its barren, gray rocks, but also with its endless sand dunes and dreamlike white beaches, it is of raw beauty. But Tom barely has an eye for it. He numbs his supposed insouciance in this sunny place of longing with fleeting one-night stands and lots of alcohol.
Vanished without a trace on Fuerteventura (FSK6)