A fish swimming upside down
Director: Eliza Petkova | Actors: Nina Schwabe, Theo Trebs, Henning Kober, Leon Ullrich | Year: 2020 | FSK: tba | Duration: 103 min.
A love triangle at the limits of conventional morality. Andrea, a woman without a past or any plans for the future, has just moved in with her new boyfriend Philipp and his son Martin. Father and son need to fill the gap in their lives following the death of their wife and mother, Hanna. Philipp is determined to leave the past behind; he is already removing Hanna’s last remaining images. Martin is finding it more difficult to cope with his loss and is giving both his Dad and Andrea the cold shoulder. But Andrea brings a new sense of lightness to the big, empty family home and, when she also turns her attentions to Martin, she becomes a welcome sounding board for the emotions of both men. During the course of the summer, their longing seems to find fulfilment in a love triangle in which who knows what about whom remains unspoken. Nonetheless, their expectations are raised, and while Philipp becomes more withdrawn and passive, Martin grows more possessive. Drawn into an increasingly destructive interdependence, the trio ultimately become burdened by their shared guilt. A spare, well-composed portrait of three imperfect, intensely human characters fighting the void within. (Source: 70. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin)
