Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Bertolt Brecht is alive, and he is a black deckhand aboard the MS Rheinland, an abandoned cargo vessel moored on the dingy fringes of Hamburg's busy container seaport. There's a whole world going on below deck. "Hölle Hamburg" is part left-wing conspiracy thriller, part makeshift mockumentary. I also felt like I learned quite a lot about the joys and sorrows of a freelance filmmaker (played by Martina Schiesser). My personal favorite among the movie's many oddities is the revolutionary, if somewhat hectic filing system used by the underground merchant marine; I'm writing it up as "pick at random and crumple at ease". It's like the bohemian counterpart of the old-school document management practiced by Craig Schwartz, the megalomaniac puppeteer, in "Being John Malkovich". Watch out for Makalu veteran Jens Rachut in a supporting role. Technically inferior, but that's the price you pay for guerrilla movie-making. An experience like no other. 4/10 for sheer strangeness.