Around the random murders, the film hones in on Berlin's melancholy, a landscape of puddles and prostitutes, a silent city – the hush broken by bells or shrieks, the tap-tap of a tool being sharpened, and haunted by the killer's eerie whistling of Grieg's "In the Hall of The Mountain King".
Revelations that the beleaguered Cypriot government will have to find almost double the amount to meet the terms of the €10bn bailout – amid signs that the EU's wealthy north has tired of rescuing the bloc's heavily indebted south – have only sharpened her anguish.
Differences have narrowed considerably over the last nine months, but as the number of outstanding issues has shrunk, the differences over them have sharpened.
For her part, Ezekwesili has been sharpened for battle by two years in government, first under the department of mines, then later as education minister.
The offshore view of the Marina Piccola – exquisite, laid-back and, as the name implies, small – sharpened my wife's determination to have lunch there.
'CYCLIST IN £250,000 TYRE-SLASH RAMPAGE!' says a headline in the Birmingham Post, after Ashley Carpenter was caught sending a 'warning' to 'inconsiderate motorists' with a sharpened screwdriver.
In Ecuador and elsewhere, tensions between the demands of development, the environment and indigenous rights have sharpened.
The return of Lack, 67, had been anticipated for weeks, at least, but the announcement sharpened questions about what changes were yet to come.
Pan-Kurdish sentiments have been sharpened by the battle against IS, in turn stirring the long-standing rebelliousness of Cizre, where a legendary Kurdish emir, Bedr Han, rose up against the Ottomans in the early 19th century.
Their demands for Alevi houses of worship to be officially designated as such were again ignored, just as Mr Erdogan's pro-Sunni foreign policy has sharpened feelings of discrimination.For all such grumbles, however, the reforms are a substantial step in the right direction.
Many scientists think a sixth is under way, this one caused by man.From the time that he first sharpened a spear, technological progress and economic growth have allowed man to dominate the planet.
