Independent Films, Film Profiles

Faraway, So Close!
by Wim Wenders

Faraway, So Close! (German: In weiter Ferne, so nah!) is a 1993 film by German director Wim Wenders. The screenplay is by Wenders, Richard Reitinger and Ulrich Zieger. The film is a sequel to Wenders' 1987 film Wings of Desire. Actors Otto Sander and Bruno Ganz reprise their roles as angels visiting earth, and the film also stars Nastassja Kinski, Willem Dafoe and Heinz Rühmann (in his last film role).Cassiel and Raphaella, two angels, observe the busy life of reunited Berlin. Due to their divine origin they can hear the thougts of the people around them and even try console a dying man. He also observes a forger who secretly asks for forgiveness for his forgeries.Cassiel has been following his friend Damiel around, who senses his presence when he is around and tells him about his experiences about being a human being. Damiel now owns a pizza parlor under the name Casa dell'angelo (Angel's House), he has been married to Marion, a trapeze artist, who also works in a local bar in West Berlin and have a little daughter. He also follows little Raisa Becker around, an 11 year old girl who lives in East Berlin, he observes her life and the fact that she and her mother (Hanna Becker) are being followed around by Winter, a detective who works for Anton Becker, an American mafioso who owns a transport company as front of his illegal activities. Other followed people by Cassiel are Lou Reed and Mikhail Gorbachev.Cassiel follows both Hanna Becker and Winter to an abandoned building in the outskirts of East Berlin, she brings food to Konrad, a man that has been serving as a father to Hanna even though he was nothing more than her chauffeur during WWII. Cassiel travels back in time and sees that during heavy bombing of Berlin at the end of the war, the Becker family were well off in the Nazi Régime but when the war was ostensibly lost, Dr. Becker fled to America with their boy, but the mother, Gertrud Becker, stayed behind with little Hanna under the care of Konrad. Cassiel notices that Winter takes photographs of the old WWII cars that Konrad still keeps in mint condition.Winter brings the photos he made to Mr. Anton Becker, but it is only to resign his assignment as his private investigator, because he has also investigated his employer and concludes that there is something fishy about him. He leaves the hotel and stumbles upon Peter Falk who is traveling around East Berlin to take in the city, since the last time he was in the city, it was divided and could not travel to the eastern side.Cassiel longs for being able to be more engaged in the human world and experience the life of a human. When visiting Raisa, she is alone in the apartment perched over her balcony looking over Alexanderplatz, she loses her balance and falls over, Cassiel tries to save her and suddenly becomes human catching her in his arms. He is amazed that he is now human and is unaware of many things natural to people such as the volume of his voice or how to walk around the streets and avoid cars. The only possession he has is an angel's armor that also became physical when he made the jump into humanity. After leaving Raisa safe he walks into the underground and gets tricked into gambling by a shady character later known as "Emit Flesti", he looses the money and the armor. Raphaella begs Emit Flesti to give Cassiel time to understand what it is to be a human, he agrees but does not promise to stop hunting him around.During his arrest he is also faced with something he ignored about humanity: identity, since he cannot give his name or address but refers the Police to the Casa dell'Angelo.Damiel is surprised to see his friend now a human and brings him home. Cassiel is confused about being human; he encounters many kind people but also rude people and does not understand why people are so alone and cannot understand each other (as an angel he could hear their thoughts but not now). Tricked into drinking alcohol by Emit Flesti, he becomes addicted and even robs a shop for more alcohol with a gun that he had taken away from a teenager who was planning to kill his stepfather for beating him. He also attends a concert by Lou Reed.Cassiel is reduced to begging in the streets but Lou Reed gives him more than money, he gives a pep talk based on one of his songs "Why can't I be good?" to boost his spirit and Cassiel wonders why can't he be good.He then turns the tables and begins acting. He approaches Anton Becker and feigns a car accident, thus forcing Anton to pay for his passport and official identifications under the name Karl Engel (Charles Angel). His actions impress Anton so much that he hires Cassiel as his personal valet in charge of passing him cards to never lose in poker with his mafia associates. Cassiel drops in at Casa dell'Angelo to return the various items Damiel had lent him and comes across Emit Flesti again, who is collecting money from Damiel, it seems that Flesti lent Damiel the cash to set up the pizza parlor.Cassiel saves Anton's life from a Turkish mafioso that wants to give Anton cement shoes for cheating at cards. With this Anton makes Cassiel his partner, however the latter has no idea of the real nature of Anton's business. When he discovers that he handles all kinds of pornography, assault weapons and explosives, he flees Anton's storage facility underneath Tempelhof airport and decides to stop him. Cassiel goes to Konrad's garage and sleeps in one of his cars with Winter sleeping in another car. When Winter is about to leave he is killed by Emit Flesti, Winter dies in Cassiel's arms. Konrad comes and tells Cassiel his life story, since Konrad has figured out that Cassiel was his angel all along his life.Cassiel arranges all of his friends into a big scheme to destroy Anton's business. In the meantime Anton has been reunited with his sister Hanna. With the help of Peter Falk, he tricks airport security away from the security monitors, Cassiel manages to get in the storage area where they take all Anton's armory and destroy the pornography copying machines. The weapons get sent to a barge on the river, owned by other friends of Cassiel.After the plan is completed, Cassiel is ready to live his life as a human but he is stopped by Emit Flesti who tells him that the barge has been kidnapped by Anton's enemy with him inside it and the rest of his friends and only he can help.On the way to a water lock along the river, Emit Flesti reveals that he is Time Itself and explains that Cassiel does not belong in the human world and that his mission is to make him realize that, because he has a word written on his forehead.Once in the water lock Cassiel manages to free little Raisa but gets killed in the process, which turns out to be the word written on his forehead; Emit Flesti slows time to allow the others take over the barge and thus save the entire party.Cassiel is reunited with Raphaella and they comment on how his vision and mission is now improved and more clear to them and how they can bring us closer to God.On the barge everyone is sad about Cassiel's death but they are reassured when Damiel hears a ring in his ear (a signal that Cassiel is around) and laughs in joy that he has made it.