I read the other reviews before watching the film. It was a bit slow, but it was touching. The relationship between the father and son was heartbreaking. My father died before I could get a chance to REALLY know him. This movie took me there. The countryside was gorgeous and well-shot. I only wish there was more extrapolation concerning the aunt. A decent film though.

"Jonathan" is a German German-language movie from 2016 that runs for 100 minutes. It is the first full feature film work by Polish short film and television series director Piotr J. Lewandowski. And he is also one of the three co-writers here. The cast includes several actors that German film buffs will immediately recognize, at least the faces, maybe even the names, like Niewöhner (playing the title character), Hennicke, Koschitz, Auer and Sarbacher. This is the story of a young man whose father is slowly dying from cancer. And while this happens, we, as well as the protagonist, find out that his dad's last wish is apparently to be reunited with a former sweetheart. Only problem is that the latter is a man. This causes some major struggles of course to everybody when it comes to dealing with this new situation, especially in terms of Auer's character. Back to Niewöhner: His character himself has a relatively unlikely love relationship going on for himself that may be entirely different in essence compared to his dad's, but eventually there are similarities because both are facing major obstacles for their decisions and preferences.

Anyway, the film does go a bit over the top perhaps when it comes to depicting homophobia as really it is basically accepted in our society nowadays and some of the drama did not ring true. But the actors somehow make it work eventually and Niewöhner holds his own well in the face of all these much more experienced and established German actors. Thumbs up to him and to everybody else. Another minor criticism is that the ending is maybe a bit too much feel-good and in the spirit of really wanting to end it on a happy note (despite the death of course), some realism was sacrificed by Lewandowski I guess. But nonetheless, it is a pretty decent first feature by him and it shows that he collected a solid deal of experience in other formats already in his career. The film almost never feels pretentious, but has an authentic touch to it and in my very example it definitely also helped that I like almost all of the actors. Besides, the setting and scenery also work pretty nicely with the overall story. I enjoyed these slightly over 1.5 hours and recommend checking them out. A positive surprise for sure.

I liked this movie. Some say it moved slowly, but considering the story it tells, that is appropriate. It is a young man's attempt to know the story about his parents, one of whom he has never known, and the other who is now dying.

Some of the reviews here are complaining that it celebrated homophobia, and/or minimized the gay story line, or that it isn't truly a gay story at all. I disagree. The gay characters might be secondary to the primary character, but it's a gay story in how those secondary characters affect the primary character, and the impact they have had on him. This is about a young man caring for his dying father, who never knew his mother, and doesn't understand why his father refuses to talk about her, knowing that time is running out for him to learn anything about his mother. His reaction and frustration are normal.

This is not celebrating homophobia; it is demonstrating how it impacts people and causes them to do unintentionally cruel actions; it is demonstrating the damage that homophobia does. I thought it gave a realistic portrayal of a man who lived his life in the closet but was determined not to die there. Is it so surprising that his son would be stunned at learning the truth about his parents? This wasn't about the son being homophobic, it was about his very reasonable and understandable sense of betrayal, learning that he had been told lies about his parents, for his entire life... and while his one remaining parent is in the throes of dying. Who wouldn't be shocked and frantic and angry at such a time? This was hardly celebrating homophobia; it was demonstrating its effects.