Night to be Gone (Ztracená noc)

Omer and Carine are a pair of grifters, hustling at the pool table in order to make fast cash. Both of them are running away from pasts that continue to haunt them: Omer as an African refugee, Carine as a French woman whose life was mired in drugs. When the two arrive in Berlin, Omer challenges a notorious pool hustler, The Sultan, to an all-night showdown that may finally earn them both enough money to move on. But they wind up getting hustled themselves, forcing them to rethink their plans – and what they mean to each other. Based on a true story. Night to be Gone is a timely portrait of immigration and racism in contemporary Germany, using the tropes of the film noir genre to explore an African pool hustler’s attempts to make a better life for himself, and perhaps find love, in a cold and unwelcoming place.

Loren David Marsh