Zwischen uns Gott

Religious faith as the everyday experience of ordinary people is rarely treated seriously, or even depicted, in cinema. Often it is either magnified into extravagant lyricism, or mercilessly derided. Zwischen uns Gott takes a very different, more honest and intimate documentary approach. Director Rebecca Hirneise feels estranged from the beliefs of her Protestant upbringing, and so returns to the culture of her family in order to understand it better and come to terms with it. She initiates a literal circle in which theological discussions take place between her mother, aunts and uncles.

Halfway through the film, the circle breaks down. Hirneise shows us, without manipulating the situation or overtly judging it, that spiritual belief is an intensely individual, private affair. It creates divisions within couples, casts certain topics into the oblivion of silence, creates rifts between siblings and generations (the filmmaker’s mother, Birgit, is an especially fascinating figure). These people’s spiritual practices take many forms, from solitary meditation to charismatic communities. And yet, even given these conflicts and disparities, God remains central to their daily lives. Not since Frederick Wiseman’s Essene (IFFR 1972) has a film gone so deeply into this paradox.

– Adrian Martin