Sixty Minutes (60 Minuten)

 Octavio (Emilio Sakraya) has done fucked up again. He's gone and booked a big MMA fight on the same day of his estranged daughter's birthday... and made things worse by promising that he'll be there with an amazing cake and gift.

 He reckons he can grab both on his way to the party at his ex-wife's once the fight is done, but he's cutting it close. And you know how it goes: First he has to have an awesome mini-training montage with his cool MMA friends, then get to the fight venue, then have several stops to meet and greet some shady friends of the co-owner of his gym (always a bad sign, when obvious thug types act all nice and mention how much they've got riding on your fight). Before you know it, the kid's party is almost done and his ex-wife, fed up with all his deadbeat dad bullshit, threatens with taking sole custody of their daughter unless Octavio makes good on his promises and gets to the party before it ends.

 The ultimatum arrives just as he's about to enter the ring, and it gives him exactly sixty minutes to buy the cake, retrieve the kitty from the animal shelter, and get to his ex-wife's house... which happens to be on the other side of Berlin. So he chooses the honorable option, of course: to drop everything and run a mad dash across town to try and get to his little girl.

 And there's an added (obvious) twist: Octavio's fight was, unbeknownst to him, rigged, and there was a lot of illegal gambling going in the background from some very shady types. So it's a Run, Lola Run situation of traversing a city against the clock while being chased by all sorts of unsavory characters (and a few asshole cops)... except that in this instance Lola knows martial arts. This is the sort of writing they should give Nobel prizes out for; It is fucking great. 

 As and added treat, the chase starts fifteen or twenty minutes into an hour and a half movie, so it has the beauty of being nearly real-time, something the movie graciously refuses to emphasize except for the odd on-screen rendition of Octavio's clock running a timer, or a map of the city showing our pilgrim's progress.

 I normally hate shitty, manipulative "this is your third strike and you need to do X by Y or we're out of your life or whatever" premises (see: Dayshift); It works here because the protagonist is likeable, but credibly flawed. The film provides an actual context for Octavio's history of poor parenting, so his ex's frustration comes off as more genuine than just some rote stakes-setting, and it makes his grand gesture feels like more than just a gesture.

 The script by Director Oliver Kienle and Philip Koch juggles its elements very well - a lot of action, of course, but it's leavened by a sense of humour that keeps cropping up unexpectedly; The jokes are low-key and character-based, but some of them are still pretty funny. Most characters are given just a little more depth than you'd expect in a film like this and while minimalistic, there's enough to the central drama to give some welcome heft and weight to the story.

 The action is varied and teeters between tensie chases and satisfying fights where Octavio is sometimes joined by a buddy or two - the most noteworthy being Cosima (Marie Mouroum), a statuesque hellion in a tracksuit whose single-minded pursuit of a pay rise throughout the movie is both relatable and pretty amusing.
 Kienle gives his fights and chases room to breathe - there's a little frame skipping but it's not too bad, the handheld cameras track the well-blocked action with ease, and even add some flourishes when they follow through with some of the moves to give them a little more oomph. The choreography is a little too grounded, less crazy than I'd prefer, but there are still plenty of cool moves to enjoy. Sakraya's not an actual MMA fighter but he does have some background in martial arts, and he acquits himself nicely (as do the rest of the cast and stuntmen) both in and out of the fights.

 Ignore the red N of death, this is a really good one. Well done Germany.