If you know, you know. Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert is the best-selling solo jazz recording and piano album of all time — 66 minutes of pure improv, a work of sublime introspection and intense rigor. While that might seem like rather esoteric ground for a biopic, Ido Fluk’s movie about the buildup to the 1975 concert is jokey, fun, and feminist. Rather than framing the story squarely around Jarrett (played by Past Lives’ John Magaro), this is the tale of Vera Brandes (Mala Emde), the concert’s 16-year-old promoter who refused to back down, even with the odds against her.
Vera hurdles obstacles with panache, whether it’s calling a venue “from England” (actually the phone in her father’s dental clinic) or taking an 11 p.m. slot at the cavernous Cologne opera house. Along the way, the movie lightly sketches in what free jazz can be, cleverly poking fun at its own artistic liberties. This is the Bend It Like Beckham of jazz films. ’Nuff said!
Missed it at VIFF? Catch it at the VIFF Centre after the festival.
Supported by
Ido Fluk
Mala Emde, John Magaro, Michael Chernus, Alexander Scheer, Ulrich Tukur
Germany/Belgium/Poland
2025
In German and English with English subtitles
Coarse language, drug use, violence
Open to youth!
Book Tickets
Credits
Executive Producer
Oren Moverman, Lillian Lasalle, Zelene Fowler, Michael Fowler, Annegret Weitkämper Krug, Paul Hudson, Talaat Captan, Rain Sharing, Tõnu Hiielaid, Barbaros Özbugutu, Julianne Hausler, Jennifer Fox, Christoph Lange
Producer
Sol Bondy, Fred Burle
Screenwriter
Ido Fluk
Cinematography
Jens Harant
Editor
Anja Siemens
Production Design
Jutta Freyer
Original Music
Hubert Walkowski, Martin Hossbach
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