Longing
(Sehnsucht)
In German with English subtitles • Markus, a welder and volunteer fireman, and his wife, Ella, are happy with their uneventful lives in a village outside of Berlin, until Markus attends a firemen's training seminar and ends up sleeping with a waitress named Rose. In the hands of German writer-director Valeska Grisebach, this straightforward plot becomes an exceptional tale with an impressively unadorned visual style and remarkable performances from a nonprofessional cast (chosen, in part, because their lives have some commonalities with those of the characters they portray). A former documentarian, Grisebach has been compared to Michael Haneke (her teacher at the Vienna Film Academy) and the Dardenne brothers. But her work has more soulfulness and passion than the films of either the cerebral Haneke or the downbeat Dardennes. It's a passion that's all the more intense because it's so quiet and inchoate. "Longing" is a perfect descriptor for what these characters feel. — M. Landazuri
Director: Valeska Grisebach
Producer: Peter Rommel
Screenwriter: Valeska Grisebach
Cinematographer: Bernhard Keller
Editor: Bettina Böhler, Valeska Grisebach, Natali Barrey
Cast: Andreas Müller, Uka Welz, Anett Dornbusch
Print Source:
In Frame/Hollywood Classics
39-51 Mighgate Rd
Linton House
London, NW5 1RS
UK
Tel: +44 207 424 7280
