Hanna Slak’s film is a psychological family drama, where the tumultuous relationship between a mother and her teenage son is as tempestuous as Brittany.
“Not a word” or so little is exchanged in Hanna Slak’s film of the same title (in theaters October 9), which premiered at the Rencontres du Cinéma de Gérardmer. Not a word, or very little, between Nina, a renowned orchestra conductor (played by the troubling actress Maren Eggert) and her teenage son, Lars (played by Jona Levin Nicolai). Too busy with her intrusive career, the mother needs to speak up more than ever after her son “falls” from a window at school.
Accident, suicide attempt? Legitimately worried, Nina wonders, tries to understand and sees just how badly her son is doing. She decided to leave Munich for a few days and take him to Belle-Ile-en-Mer in Brittany, to an old vacation home by the sea. It’s a big, cold house in this leaden winter, where they soon find themselves trapped by a storm. Their relationship is just as tempestuous during this silent tête-à-tête, punctuated by angry outbursts.
Lars is visibly disturbed by a tragedy, the death of a pupil (again, accident or not?), and Nina wonders if he’s involved in this “affair” about which no one is saying anything. Slovenian director Hanna Slak, who lives in Berlin, has shot a psychological family drama in which “Not a word” really breaks the silence between a mother and her son, the disturbing technology (drone, cell phones…) doing nothing to help communication, the inability to listen to each other, to hear each other, the difficulty of being a good parent. The coldness of their relationship is reflected in the beautiful imagery created by cinematographer Claire Mathon, which captures the raw power of Brittany’s nature, wind, waves, light… while Gustav Mahler’s mournful Fifth Symphony sets the pace for this tale of lingering unease.
Patrick TARDIT
“Not a word”, a film by Hanna Slak (in cinemas since October 9).