Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Ein Atem" or "One Breath" is a German movie from last year that managed to achieve a solid deal of awards attention everywhere around the world (Asia, America, Europe). The director is Christian Zübert and he also wrote this film together with his wife Ipek, who has a small role in front of the camera too. It is a bit strange to me that Benjamin Sadler is credited first here. He plays the biggest supporting role probably, along with the actor who plays the Greek police officer in the second half of the film, but the two lead performance clearly come from Jördis Triebel (German Film Award nominee) and Chara Mata Giannatou. The film runs for 95 minutes (they run by quickly) approximately and you could say that the Greek actress is in charge the first 40-45 minutes and Triebel afterward. But both also play big parts in the other's. As a big part of the film is about Greece, Greek character etc., there is also a great deal of Greek language in here, so make sure you get subtitles.I liked the way Zübert structured it with the focus on one character first and then the other. It also shows when we see everything from the Greek woman's perception how appearances can be misleading. In the first half, we take Triebel's character almost as something of an antagonist because it feels so easy to feel for the other girl when we see everything from her perspective, her struggles with work and private life at the same time. And we are happy for her when her man finally decides to follow her to Germany and she has a huge smile on her lips. But in the second half, it is exactly the other way around. We care for Triebel's character and wonder what happened to her baby and admire her courage to do everything she can in a foreign country to get her child back. And we worry when she gets that mysterious call about the people who want money in exchange for the child when we of course know it never left Germany. I personally found it rather irrelevant what happened to the baby, but they wanted that somewhat happy ending I guess. This is much more the story of two women struggling in their roles of (soon) mothers and also struggle with the men in her life.I must say I regret a bit that I only watched this film on the small screen as it would have certainly been even more effective on the big screen. Triebel and Giannatou carry the film nicely and I can't deny that the stunning looks of the latter also helped a lot in getting me interested and helping me care for the characters' fates. I have not seen the German Film Award winner for Lead Actress (Tonke), but I believe she must be really good that people picked her over a very baity and well-executed turn by Triebel here. But of course, it's not just the actors who make it work. The direction is fairly convincing too and the script makes it very easy for you to move to the edge of your seat. It is a really tense and atmospheric movie for the most part. Probably my favorite from Zübert so far, although I really enjoyed "Hin und weg" as well. two great recent films from him and no doubt he is among the finest Germany currently has to offer in terms of filmmaking.
