The fatherless: Berlin-review

Ensemble drama about children coming home, her father buried is only slightly raised by background story about life in a community.

Berlin International Film Festival (Panorama-Special)

Marie Kreutzer

Andrea wenzl, Philipp Hochmair, Andreas Kiendl, Emily Cox

BERLIN - films, where a death together draws a different group in a remote location, the gamut of masterpieces to can run usual dramas. Austrian Director Marie Kreutzer'sthe fatherless lands somewhere in the Middle, scoring more points with the background history of living together in the 1970s as the sign relations, or a (mild) surprise ending.

Austrian box office is (it opened April 8) should be OK, but the film the extension into other German-speaking areas is questionable, likely with a few European Festival gigs.

Kreutzer decided a dilapidated House in the Austrian countryside and idyllic surroundings, the setting be set for her story in motion when the leaders of the former municipality dies. His children, all as free spirits, back dutiful.

What follows is not really surprising: two of the children brought their respective partners, so that it room for an affair between the outsiders. In the meantime, the piece of rest of together her childhood game different memories. Only Krya, played by Andrea Wenzl, gets a more interesting history that leads as a thin red line to the end of the film: born an another mother than the others, she was ejected from the municipality of 23 years under circumstances that are somehow connected with Mizzi (Emily Cox), is suffering from a neurological disorder.

While these various characters and the natural beauty of the farmhouse with some nostalgic props such as vinyl records and old letters, give Kreutzer and their players enough to play with, it is the flashbacks in the communal life (done in vibrant colors) and discussions on the topic, that stir our interest. The big secret is something of a disappointment.

The actors are universal are competent and engaging with Menon with a mysterious, nuanced and accessible performance. Johannes Krisch makes the best from his limited screen time as the charismatic, unfatherly Patriarch.

At the end of the fatherless is more talking heads and less cinematic, as one would wish. While it is in our interest for its 105 minutes, this is not the big chill. More of a slight cold.

Technical credits are solid with Leena Koppe the cinematography supplement beautiful exteriors and atmospheric Interior.

Location: Berlin International Film Festival (Panorama-Special)
Novotny & Novotny Filmproduktion GmbH
Cast: Andrea wenzl, Philipp Hochmair, Andreas Kiendl, Emily Cox, Marion Mitterhammer
Director/screenwriter: Marie Kreutzer
Producer: Franz Novotny, Alexander Glehr, Ursula Wolschlager, Robert Buchschwenter
Director of photography: Leena Koppe
Production designer: Martin Reiter
Music: David Hebenstreit
Costume designer: Veronika Albert
Editor: Ulrike Kofler
No review, 105 minutes.