Taglines: Your favorite Angels are back!
Faraway, So Close movie storyline. Cassiel and Raphaella, two angels, observe the busy life of reunited Berlin. Due to their divine origin, they can hear the thoughts of the people around them, and try to console a dying man. Cassiel has been following his friend Damiel (a former angel), who senses his presence and talks about his experiences as a human. He owns a pizza parlor named Casa dell’angelo (Angel’s House) and has married Marion, a trapeze artist whom he met when an angel. She works in a local bar in West Berlin, and the two have a young daughter, Doria.
Cassiel follows Raisa Becker, an 11-year-old girl who lives in the former East Berlin. He observes her life and notices that she and her mother Hanna Becker are being followed by Philip Winter, a detective who works for Anton Baker. The latter is an American arms dealer and pornographer who owns a transport company.
Cassiel follows Hanna Becker (and Winter) to an abandoned building in the outskirts of East Berlin. There he finds that she brings food to Konrad, a man who has acted as a father to her, since his days as her chauffeur during World War II. Traveling back in time, Cassiel is able to see the last days of Berlin late in the war. When the war appeared to have been lost, the father, a doctor, escaped to the United States with his son and adopted the name Baker. The mother Gertrud Becker stayed behind with the young Hanna, both under the care of Konrad.
Winter photographs the World War II-vintage cars which Konrad cares for and brings the photos to Baker. Winter drops the man as an employer, having investigated his activities. He encounters Peter Falk outside the hotel. As Raphaella and Cassiel sit on top of the Brandenburg Gate, he expresses a desire to experience human life. Visiting Raisa, he finds her alone at her flat and leaning over the balcony railing. As she falls, Cassiel tries to save her and suddenly becomes human, catching the child.
He has to adjust to the transformation, learning to modulate the volume of his voice and to negotiate streets and avoid being hit by cars. His only possession is an angel’s armor, which became tangible when he leaped into humanity. In the underground (subway), Cassiel is tricked into gambling by Emit Flesti, losing his armor and money won during the game. Raphaella begs Flesti to give Cassiel time to understand what it is to be a human; he agrees but does not promise to stop hunting him.
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. The film also stars Nastassja Kinski, Willem Dafoe and Heinz Rühmann (in his last film role). It won the Grand Prix du Jury at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.
Faraway, So Close! (1993)
Directed by: Wim Wenders
Starring: Otto Sander, Peter Falk, Nastassja Kinski, Heinz Rühman, Horst Buchholz, Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Rüdiger Vogler, Willem Dafoe, Mikhail Gorbachev
Screenplay by: Richard Reitinger, Wim Wenders, Ulrich Zieger
Production Design by: Albrecht Konrad
Cinematography by: Jürgen Jürges
Film Editing by: Peter Przygodda
Costume Design by: Esther Walz
Art Direction by: Martin Schreiber
Music by: Laurent Petitgand, Graeme Revell
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language.
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Classics
Release Date: December 21, 1993
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