Movie, 1977

Tale of a struggling German street musician, fresh out of prison, and who’s chased out of his home country by a couple of thugs and takes up with a couple of friends in the USA. A story with a touch of Candide about it, in which the well-meaning, essentially good, and entrepreneurial hero is let down by a world he’s ill-equipped to deal with and which gives him no quarter. There is, however, a joy from the energy Stroszek applies to setting himself, Eva and Scheitz and his alternating, hopelessness and confusion in his embattled state. Stroszek is, or seems blissfully unaware of the darkness around him. There’s no sense he’s connected or clued up about Eva’s prostitution, until he falls into a deeper and deeper despair. Joyous and hard to watch all at the same time.