Andrea Schramm
Germany | 2021 | 21 min
World premiere
Language : German
Subtitles : English, French
The director’s father is taken to hospital, where he dies, at the beginning of the health crisis. Isolated in the parental flat, mother and daughter begin their mourning, a double ordeal during lockdown. In splendid black-and-white, this intimate account calls for the use of emotion as a fundamental human connection.
A rugged wall, a cold room, a space that changes over the scenes to lead us into a flat that was once full of life. Hung portraits, small objects on shelves, memories of a life together and windows opening onto deserted streets, all is filmed with great precision. It is in this setting of changing light and splendid black-and-white, that director Andrea Schramm constructs an intimate story of mourning. Using a montage of her mother’s telephone conversations, the film modestly illustrates the emotion and pain after the loss of a loved one, while lockdown makes it impossible to be with those who are dying and share the suffering. The sound design highlights the uniqueness of the empty space, reinforcing the loneliness of the bereaved. Thus, the making of the film itself becomes essential to the work of mourning, in a process that will culminate, some months later, in the director’s return to this now empty apartment filled with the absence of the father.
Javier Martín
