A Heavy Heart

An ailing former boxing champ tries to make amends for a lifetime of regrets in former student Oscar winner Thomas Stuber's emotionally raw debut feature.

The Embassies of Austria, Germany and Switzerland present....

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Sponsored by The Waterloo Centre for German Studies.

Generously Supported by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany Ottawa

Former Eastern German boxing champ Herbert has not been a winner in life since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now a hard-up bouncer and debt collector, he tries to revive the past by coaching his young boxing protégé, Eddy. After a training session, Herbert suddenly collapses with spasms of pain; however, he initially chooses to ignore the signs. When his physical deficiencies become more and more apparent, Herbert finally sees a specialist who ultimately diagnoses him with a fatal neural disease. With not much time left, Herbert struggles with himself and the hard outer shell he‘s cultivated over time. Not many things really matter to him apart from his ‘lost’ daughter Sandra, whom he abandoned when the family fell apart. Now a mother herself, Sandra is still hurt and afraid of allowing her dying father to be a part of her life again.

Thomas Stuber tells the touching story of a lone wolf who takes a long time to find the meaning of his life. Stuber has succeeded in creating a fascinating character study and a "different" kind of boxing film. Stuber  uses  the  genre's basic elements in a harmonious combination of realism and personal drama and manages to entirely avoid any stylistic clichés.

In 2014 leading man Peter Kurth was named Actor of the Year, the most important recognition within the German theatre community, and his performance of  failed loner Herbert in this film gives the tragic hero a presence and dignity that even a complete physical deterioration of the body cannot diminish.

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