QUICK AND DIRTY: LIVE FROM BERLIN

In his previous film Berlin Alexanderplatz (2020), Burhan Qurbani reimagined Alfred Döblin’s novel in the present-day context. Now he’s set his sights on another classic text. No Beast. So Fierce. is a contemporary retelling of Shakespeare’s Richard III, also set in 21st century Berlin. When the gang war between the York and Lancaster families finally comes to an end, not everyone is happy with the result. Rashida York (Kenda Hmeidan) takes the role of Richard III. She feels the peace treaty is a sign of weakness; it’s her time to take over the throne and return the Arab clan to its former glory. She just needs to get rid of the men in her family first.

Her freedom is her most valuable asset. Something Germany does not easily offer to non-white immigrants of Arab descent forced to flee her country. And being a woman, her Arab community won’t grant her freedom either. An early breaking point for her character is the information that she will be married off against her will. Rashida is forced to permanently chain herself to a strange man in order to forge peace. Something she never asked for in the first place. How far does a person like her have to go in order to be feree?

No Beast. So Fierce. is a film driven by its dialogue. Much of Shakespeare’s language is updated to a modern lingo. But despite that, it keeps the spirit of the bard intact. It does so in both the poetic quality of the writing and the rhythmic delivery of its actors. Monologue after monologue filled with metaphors recalls a level of theatricality not found in most movies.

Akin to a stage play, No Beast. So Fierce. is a film willing to let some of the artifice seep through the seams. It doesn’t compare to Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) in this regard. But it operates on a level of abstraction, getting progressively more expressionistic. The clearest example of that is Rashida’s throne room. It’s a giant mud pit from from which she rules her kingdom of dust and dirt. In some scenes it’s clearly a set built on a soundstage. In others, it becomes a desert dreamscape drenched in orange neon lights.

The usage of sound is unusual, too. At one point, pictures are being taken of Rashida. Concurrently, she’s telling an assassin about her next victim. And so with every picture taken, the sound of the shutter gets louder. Until it’s indistinguishable from a gunshot. But while the sound design is outstanding, the score by Dascha Dauenhauer is a little hit or miss. In its best moments, it adds a real sense of grandiosity to scenes. With a symphony of distorted screams, heavy strings, and hip-hop beats. But the score often overstays its welcome and feels intrusive in smaller moments.

With a duration of nearly two and a half hours, he whole endeavour feels overlong. Rashida plotting to off one person after the other is exciting to watch. But it’s a Shakespeare adaptation. This means that the writing is on the wall very early on. With nobody else on the cast given a real spotlight, the rise and fall of Rashida York can’t sustain the entire runtime of No Beast. So Fierce. After two hours, the chapter cards fulfil no purpose.

No Beast. So Fierce. is a greasy movie with a few shortcomings. Overlong, inconsistent, and maybe too ambitious for its own good. But it’s that ambition, rivalling its own main character, that makes it worth watching. For mostly better and sometimes worse, director Burhan Qurbani pushes the formal execution of his Shakespeare adaptation into new territory (aesthetically and geographically). It’s the kind of bold movement we too rarely see in German film these days.

No Beast. So Fierce. just premiered in the Berlinale Special section of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival.