HIFF 2020: Crescendo
HIFFCrescendo tells the story of world-renowned German conductor, Eduard Sporck (Peter Simonischek), who has the task of putting together an orchestra composed of young Israeli-Palestinians for a peace concert performance. The movie not only focuses on the conductor, but it also shows the point of view of two young aspiring musicians, Omar (Mehdi Meskar) and Laila (Sabrina Amali), as they try to overcome the atrocities of this war through their music. Dror Zahavi’s new feature has a lot of heart at its core and wants to transmit a genuine message of peace in those dark times, but unfortunately there’s nothing innovating or even interesting from a cinematic perspective. This kind of movie has been done several times before and due to the overall basic structure of the narrative, the audience will know exactly what is going to happen.
There are a couple subplots that could have led to something worth discussing but the script never goes deep enough in exploring them; one of these is the past of the German conductor and the possible connections between his relatives and the Nazis, while the other revolves around the love story between Omar and Shira. This relationship tries to resemble a modern version of Romeo and Juliet with the war in the background and the conflicted nature of the two families, nevertheless those characters are written paper thin and the lack of chemistry between the two actors is evident. Acting isn’t any better from Sabrina Amali; the young actress’ performance is really over the top and drags the story down as she exasperates every emotion her character is going through and fails to be convincing at all, and her breakdown scene towards the end of the movie is a clear example of that.
Peter Simonischek, the veteran German actor mostly known for the titular role in Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, is by far the best element of Crescendo, and his portrayal of the conductor rises above the limitations of the script. The actor brings a lot of charm and warmth to the character and portrays him as a strict yet tender person who is willing to do anything for the concert and for the young musicians’ sake. Simonischek is also quite effective and moving in showing the doubts and the past surrounding his character, but once again the movie fails to explore this in detail.
Crescendo doesn’t end on a high note (no pun intended) as the crowdpleaser ending feels a bit forced and doesn’t truly earn its emotions. Dror Zahavi accomplishes in transmitting his message but the over-simplistic nature of the narrative and the weak script prevents the movie from becoming something more than a Sunday afternoon TV movie.