Alexandra (Marie Bloching) drives a Koktaxi through Berlin. For info for all non -urban residents: Such a coke staxi can be ordered day and night in the urban metropolitan areas, by telegram or comparable messenger services with anonymity warranty – and is then on site in the shortest possible time to breastfeed any needs of illegal intoxicants. At least in the capital, this form of service counts – as well as the Spätis open around the clock, who take care of the supply of legal drugs alcohol and nicotine – for many years to establish urban infrastructure.
One of the main business times for the mobile cocaine trade is certainly the annual New Year's Eve, and in one we will also encounter Alexandra here for the first time – at the driver's seat, from customer to customer, as it seems, something strenuous on the phone. And outside on the street is blown up, even well before midnight. A regular customer asks whether the fabric is also not stretched. Somewhere he read that on New Year's Eve, the coke was often blended with rat poison.
Driving in the alternation of the seasons
“”High beam“, The directorial debut of the Berlin filmmaker Johanna Schorn Kalinsky, begins and ends on this New Year's Eve, but it does not remain the entire 80 minutes of its pleasantly dense duration in this. We jump through time and three flashbacks, the arrangement of which we understand above all by changing the seasons. And through the ongoing or absence of a person in which we will soon recognize the crucial empty space.
The empty space in the story of the film as well as that in Alexandra's life and heart. Although we always get to know Alexandra as a pronounced cynic – a character trait that is probably not so bad with her job description – in the course of “high beam” there is also a great sadness that she carries and that finally breaks. At a moment when it may be most likely to be expected.
Alexandra (Marie Bloching) deserves her livelihood as a driver of a coconut staxis.
We only see Alexandra from all the people who play a role in this unusual road movie. The static camera remains fixed on it, and it always remains in the cramped space of the various cars. But she is by no means always at the wheel, we meet her in different positions. On the steering wheel, on the passenger seat, on the back seat, in the company car, in private cars and finally in a taxi. It interacts with different people in the course of the four episodes, but none of them really appear. Mother, brother, his partner, customers or police officers: they all remain disabled, at best blurred schemes behind the side window.
The game of leading actress Marie Bloching, who is really only the only responsibility of wearing “high beam”, is all the more important. Because Bloching can – apart from the very last – be seen in every single setting of the film. And everything that happens in it takes place on her face. It is therefore very lucky for director Schorn Kalinsky that her actress impressively proves the format to withstand this considerable pressure. Bloching Alexandra is stubborn, repellent, annoyed, cynical, grieving, aggressive, playful – and among all the tanks that she has put into position against the outside world, also insanely sad.
It doesn't take much to fill a canvas
In view of the strict form that Johanna Schorn Kalinsky chooses for her debut, you think inevitably first of all of the Iranian cinema and all his big car films, master directors such as Abbas Kiarostami (“Ten”) or Jafar Panahi (“Taxi Tehran”). However, one is by no means forced to strive for these large, iconic comparisons, because epigonal does not appear to be “high beam” at all, but in its superficial view, but in the game with the lighting moods of the different day and seasons- and also the bright sound backdrop of New Year's Eve- rather stylish.
Yes, “high beam” is a emphasized little film, but it doesn't need any big gestures at all. In just under 80 minutes, he summarizes everything we need to bring ourselves closer to his contradictory, unapproachable protagonist. You like to spend the duration of a trip from one end of Berlin in Berlin in the passenger seat, next to the great Marie Bloching. Hopefully you will see a lot more from her in the future.
Conclusion: Four car trips through Berlin, four seasons, a protagonist who initially seems unapproachable, but is brought to life by Marie Bloching's famous game. In all its minimalist, but stylish shape, “Beetz” is an impressive directorial debut for the Berlin filmmaker Johanna Schorn Kalinsky – and an exercise in compression that is currently far too rare in the contemporary cinema.
We saw the film as part of the Fidmarseille, where the film celebrated its world premiere.