I Was at Home but (Ich war zuhause aber)(2019)

I Was at Home but (Ich war zuhause aber)(2019)

NAME OF FILM: I WAS AT HOME BUT (ICH WAR ZUHAUSE ABER)

DIRECTOR(S): Angela Schanelec

STARRING: Thorbjörn Björnsson, Esther Buss, Martin Clausen

GENRE: Drama Film

SYNOPSIS: Though she’s been an essential voice in contemporary German cinema since the ’90s, Angela Schanelec is poised to find wider international audiences with I Was at Home, But…, which won her the Best Director prize at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. An elliptical yet emotionally lucid variation on the domestic drama, her latest film intricately navigates the psychological contours of a Berlin family in crisis: Astrid – played with barely concealed fury by Maren Eggert – is trying to hold herself and her fragile teenage son and young daughter together following the death of their father two years earlier. Yet as in all her films, Schanelec develops her story and characters in highly unexpected ways, shooting in exquisite, fragmented tableaux and leaving much to the viewer’s imagination, hinting at a spiritual grace lurking beneath the unsettled surface of every scene.