made by Wim Wenders in 1974. Its one of his ‘road movies’ featuring a rather luckless but charming German writer/reporter and his reluctant custody of a 9 year old girl that her mother (a stranger) foists onto him in New York. He flies with her to Amsterdam and they search across Holland and northern Germany (where my mum is from) for her relatives. Its black and white and from the shape looks like it was shot on 16mm. The shots of German towns in the 70s are fascinating. It feels as if somethings haven’t changed in 30 years while others are (people smoking on a 747 for a start, looks so strange now). At last a film without blood, violence and constant swearing. I feel like its the first good film I have seen in an age. And how a 9 year old plays the role of this rather grumpy child is beyond me. Its acting without a trace of self-consciousness, and she and Rudiger Vogler enact their relationship so well. In a coupleof weeks they show the ‘next’ film Kings of the road, made a year or so later.