What is above? Is it truth, respect, life, love, faith? Is it something else? Is there really a way to know, and is it the same thing for everyone? I asked myself this question when I got out of the screening of German film ABOVE US ONLY SKY (Ueber Uns Das All), and I have to admit that I couldn't really find a single, straight, absolute answer. However, I think that Jan Schomburg's response - this one being "only sky" - might be the most reasonable and honest one.
Screened in the Panorama competition at the Berlin Festival in February, I only got the chance to see this disturbing but quite impressive feature - first feature actually, one more very promising director to add to my list -. It won the European Cinema Label Prize at the Berlinale, and even if there still is some darkest to my understanding of its meaning, it is a fascinating film. I am actually glad that it won this prize because thanks to it, the film will receive some help for its theatrical release around Europe - one doesn't talk much about all the fantastic films that are out there but that can not been seen because they have no distributor -.
Martha is an English high-school teacher and a happy married spouse. She and her husband, who just finished his thesis and got a PhD in Neurology, enjoy having diner with friends and making love late at night. One day, the husband, Paul, comes back home with a great news: he's been asked to take a job in Marseille, in the South of France. The couple gets very excited, but the day of Paul's departure, Martha senses that something's wrong. Too busy cleaning their apartment, she doesn't realize how bad things are gonna turn out. The next morning, the police comes to their place and announces her the worst : Paul has committed suicide in a parking lot in Marseille. After a few days of panic, Martha goes to Paul's thesis director to tell him about his death. But the doctor doesn't know who Paul is. No one at the university does. The thesis he wrote was actually written by someone else. Suddenly, Martha's life falls apart as she learns that the one she loved and had been married to for year wasn't who he said he was.
While at the university to find out if someone actually knew Paul, she gets in an elevator with a man who happens to be doing the same thing her husband used to do with his hair. They meet again in a bus, and end up together in Martha's apartment. But Martha's starts acting weird, showing up naked in front of the stranger, asking him to go to bed because she's tired, as if it was the most normal thing to do - did she know this man before? is she getting crazy?
Alexander - the stranger, who happens to be a teacher at the university - and Martha start a relationship - they go to the opera, meet with friends, have sex. They seem to have known each other for years, and something weird happens: Alexander finds a job in Marseille. Than the audience can start wondering : what is real? what is truth? what is crazy - or simply unexplainable?
The performances are brilliant, and so is the filmmaking. Jan Schomburg has this strange and very surprising way of making the rhythm of his film evolves - if it starts as a pretty classic drama/comedy, slowly and happily, the film then takes the path of the thriller genre - who was Paul? why did he lie? -. The third act is more dramatic - how does Martha deal with her loss, how the encounter with Alexander helps her ease the pain - but after a while, it is impossible to distinguish what is real and what isn't - the characters become slightly schizophrenic. And even if I am sure that some elements aren't totally clear, I found this piece very appealing and impressive for a first feature. A film doesn't have to be entirely understandable to be enjoyable - and that's the mystery part that added a lot to this one.
MJ.
