Das Perfekte Geheimnis (4 Stars)

Seven people in a room. A lunar eclipse. Seven mobile phones.

The film's title means "The Perfect Secret". It's a remake of an Italian film called "Perfect Strangers" ("Perfetti Sconsciuti"). The German title is misleading. A perfect secret would be a secret that's never discovered. In this film everyone has secrets, and they're all exposed.

Eva and Rocco are a married couple who live in a luxurious apartment in the middle of Munich. She's a therapist, he's a plastic surgeon. They invite six friends (three couples) to dinner. Only five of them arrive. After talking about mobile phones controlling everyone's life today, Eva suggests a game. Therapists like games. Everyone has to lay his mobile phone on the table. Incoming calls have to be answered on speaker phone. Text messages and emails have to be read aloud.

The perfect friends soon realise that they're perfect strangers. Everyone has secrets that he's been keeping from his partner or his other friends. What starts out as a happy evening turns into arguments, and everyone leaves in tears.

We think of mobile phones as a means of communication that brings people together. This film shows that they tear us apart. It's not that the phones are bad in themselves. They're just tools to be used. The trouble with phones is that they offer methods for people to keep secrets. They bring out the worst in people.

Only one of the dinner guests, a teacher called Pepe, wants his secret to be exposed. He's a homosexual, but he's never had the courage to tell anybody. He's hoping that the game will help him come out of the closet. Unfortunately, it doesn't work as planned. Some of his friends that he's known since childhood are homophobic.

Something about this film has touched a nerve, The original version was released in 2016, but it's already been remade 20 times. The Guinness Book of Records includes it as the most remade film in cinema history.

• Italy: Perfect Strangers (2016) – the original version
• Greece: Perfect Strangers (2016)
• Spain: Perfect Strangers (2017)
• Turkey: Stranger in my Pocket (2018)
• France: Nothing to hide (2018)
• South Korea: Intimate Strangers (2018)
• Hungary. Happy New Year (2018)
• Mexico: Perfect Strangers (2018)
• China: Kill Mobile (2018)
• Russia: Loud Connection (2019)
• Armenia: Unknown Subscriber (2019)
• Poland: Strangers (2019)
• Germany: The Perfect Secret (2019)
• Vietnam: Blood Moon Party (2020)
• Japan: Adult situation (2021)
• Slovakia: Known Unknown (2021)
• Romania: Perfect Strangers (2021)
• Holland: Perfect Strangers (2021)
• Israel: Perfect Strangers (2021)
• Egypt: Perfect Strangers (2022)
• Norway: Full Coverage (2022)
• Iceland: Wild Game (2022)

Remakes are currently planned in Qatar, Sweden and (finally) America.

I've seen four versions of the film so far: the original and three remakes. They all have subtle differences, while keeping to the main lines of the original. The German remake deviates the most by adding a happy ending that was missing in the original. That weakens the story. It's a story about tragedy.

One small comment for my English speaking fans. The film has only been released in Germany, but the Blu-ray contains English subtitles.