Austrian experimental documentary maker Peter Schreiner undertakes a psychoanalytic quest for human existence. It’s a cross between Freud and Sartre, magical and minimalist, as long as you dare.
Two wrinkled lovers, marked by life, expose their deepest inner emotions. Giuliana compares the vaults of her spirit with closed doors that you ‘have to open cautiously’. ‘But,’ Christian wonders, ‘does that make you happier?’ They talk slowly and calmly, looking for the right words for their inner demons. It all comes down to reason and feeling and where the two meet. About reality that looks both familiar and alienating. And about the impossibility of understanding yourself – let alone anyone else.
Schreiner’s magnum opus is spiritualising but also stimulating. Majestic panoramic landscape shots fade into close-ups of faces, meticulously examined by the camera. As such, Schreiner is hard yet humane, merciless yet tender.
Film details
- Country of production
- Austria
- Year
- 2013
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2013
- Length
- 140'
- Medium/Format
- DCP
