Saint Pauly

First-time feature film director: I've got a solid cast and a wonderful story interweaving national identity, family identity and refugees but I need something to ruin my movie... Oh, I know, I'll add an unforgivably silly romance between two incongruous characters that will feel false and distract the viewer from everything good I've accomplished here. The talented Daphne Patakia (whom I adored in 2017's _Djam_) is the best thing about an otherwise decent outing, though the inclusion of unnecessary subplots and clumsy scenes where the audience can feel the director shouting out stage directions takes what could've been art naïf and renders it simply naïf.