Sommer in Orange
Director: Marcus H. Rosenmüller
Writer: Ursula Gruber
Cast: Amber Bongard, Petra Schmidt-Schaller, Georg Friedrich, Brigitte Hobmeier, Bettina Mittendorfer, Oliver Korittke

Plot:
Lili (Amber Bongard) lives in a hippy commune with her mother Amrita (Petra Schmidt-Schaller), her brother Fabian (Bela Baumann), her mother’s boyfriend Siddharta (Georg Friedrich), and quite a few other adults. When Siddharta inherits a farm in Bavaria, the whole group decides to move there and build a therapeutic center. But with the conservative rural mindset and the free-spirited spirituality of the commune, a clash is inevitable – and it’s Lili who is caught in the middle of it all.

Sommer in Orange was nice. Not brilliant, not earth-shatteringly good, but nice, with mixed perfomances, mixed writing and a mixed soundtrack.

Right from the start it was absolutely clear how this film would go. But at least the way it went and the clichés it used worked just fine. And the way they handled Lili’s wish to belong to the “regular” village community and her relationship with her mother was excellent. Felt very real.

Up until the ending that is. I mean, I expected a happy ending, but it got a bit too much there. That therapy session that unearthed everything and that apparently made everything better instantly? Yeah, no.

Everything else was just as mixed. Especially the cast. Georg Friedrich, who I adore as an actor as you might know, was great and the perfect fit for the role. But Amber Bongard was a bit overwhelmed with her leading role and around the both of them there were some grievous instances of hammy overacting.

And the music was… well, it was. Some songs were nice and especially the kinda Indian sounds fit the story and mood quite well. But the credits song (that is used during the film a couple of time as well, though not full length) was just horrible.

Summarising: If you find it on TV one night and have nothing else to do, you could do worse.