Acclaimed, flawlessly naturalistic drama of what happens to an ordinary family when a husband and father becomes terminally ill. “This is a film that will likely return to haunt and perhaps even to succour its audiences.” — The Telegraph
This is a film that will likely return to haunt and perhaps even to succour its audiences.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2012
Stopped on Track 2011
Halt auf freier Strecke
Andreas Dresen’s flawlessly naturalistic drama bears honest witness to the toughest of situations: the shifting mass of pain, anger, resignation, lightness and love with which a man and his family negotiate his decline and death from an inoperable brain tumour. In coping with the unthinkable, this family, like so many before and since, often falters but also discovers reserves of unconditional love they never knew they possessed. Dresen involved healthcare and social-work professionals in tracing the progress of degeneration and in improvising the interactions in his film. Their contributions, including their admissions of ignorance and powerlessness, inform his quietly upbeat picture of a society functioning on compassion to comfort the dying and console the grieving. There’s no inspirational agenda at work here, yet this film’s recognition of bitter ordinary experience honours suffering with such clear-eyed humanity that it feels like a blessing conferred. — BG
PROUDLY SUPPORTED BY GOETHE-INSTITUT