The French comedy “Understand the Béliers?” From the hearing daughter of deaf parents and their balancing act to support their family and to discharge themselves from her at the same time. In 2021, “Coda” started a US remake of this coming-of-age story, which was even awarded the Oscar for the best film. As part of the Berlinale, the long film debut of the Austrian filmmakers Marie Luise Lehner premiere – and this can be described as a more subtle, more nuanced counterpart to the two wellness films. Also “If you are afraid, take your heart in your mouth and smile“Revolves around the hearing daughter of a deaf mother, the urge for independence and longing to keep together.
Lehner's original film tells its story from a large Viennese residential complex and also deals with social stand structures and the many, small differences that become noticeable in everyday life. With a level -headed tone and multifaceted figures that look directly out of life, the filmmaker consistently avoids kitsch and pathos as well as the cliché of a falling milieus study: “If you are afraid, take your heart in your mouth and smile” is an inspiring History about mutual care, the early detection of errors and the power of forgiving.
Anna (Siena Popovic) loves her mother more than anything, even if she sometimes ashamed for her.
Anna (Siena Popovic) changes from the middle school to high school and fears that she can only find social connection there with branded clothing. And although she loves her deaf mother Isolde (Mariya Menner), the twelve -year -old feelings of shame develops when she gets in touch with her classmates. Shortly before her birthday, Anna also begins to think about kisses about tongues and well -trained butt.
Therefore, the lack of privacy in the small apartment causes resentment-especially since Isolde has found a new partner in the taciturn-friendly Atila (Markus Schramm) with which it quickly becomes serious. This transition phase does not make this transitional phase easier that there is not enough money to send Anna. At least Anna will find an ally in her classmate Mara (Jessica couple), who lives alone with her queer father (Daniel Sea) …
A closer look for crucial little things
Lehner pulls “If you are afraid, you take your heart in your mouth and smile” based on closely observed, real -life vignettes, which complement each other to a coherent overall picture: The still shy Anna is asked by her teacher, who is in a good sense, to show sign language, whereupon Anna only harvested her new class at a loss. Before her first gymnastics lessons at the new school, Anna is absorbing the talks of her classmates, who talk about “too wide hips”, at the same time inspects the differences between her own clothing style and that of the class word leader.
Such economic class differences steer Anna's behavior from now on like an invisible hand. But as much as Anna endeavors to deny her status, it is always noticeable-most clearly when a ski excursion would offer the opportunity to make friendships if there was only enough money to take part. Although class differences in a crucial topic in “If you are afraid, you take your heart in your mouth and smile”, Lehner does not concrete her legitimate anger. Instead, she stays close to her characters and trusts her audience to classify the moments shown according to shame, displacement and excluding.
Anna finds a good friend in her classmate Mara (Jessica couple).
The same is the same when she captures the everyday features that are exposed to Isolde-for example, if she wants to acquire rail tickets, but cannot read the lips of the lady that she uses. With a similar meaningful casualness, Lehner is devoted to Anna's puberty: Between envious social media consumption and casual-old-baking car quartet sessions, hormonal changes crystallize further differences between Anna and her peers. As Lehner describes, the degree of openness that Anna receives has inevitable influence on her self -esteem and thus her own handling of her fellow human beings.
No need for escalating conflicts
Such observations consistently pay for the true heart of the film: the specifically defined mother-daughter relationship, which is nevertheless universal for parent-child dynamics, including any, small lows. After all, misunderstandings, changing needs and, above all, the chaos of adolescence are general. And Lehner knows how to use their main actors, which are so lifelong in dealing with each other in such a way that the generally true truthful from their specific feelings crystallizes.
If Isolde is waiting for her daughter, for example, with angel patience on the rickety seat of her shopping trolley at school, the inconvenience that she lovingly accepts speaks volumes. The same applies to the embarrassed look of Anna, which is still insufficient, when she spies her mother at school. However, Lehner does not force a one -sided, continuously intensifying conflict: moments of the interpersonal misdemeanor are fleeting. Instead of showing a warning with his finger, she admits Anna and Isolde equally to lie in the right.
Great: The film is incredibly generous towards its characters
Other times one of the two may be able to guilt more, but the exception of the whole heart usually follows quickly. Thanks to her characters played with unstable charisma and down-to-earth ambivalence, Lehner does not need a drastic escalation: With this mother-child bundle of pain, there is already a promptly apologized failure, such as a prank overturned on the Internet. And the moments of happiness are all the more liberating-regardless of whether they are tender-in-caseous gestures or subtle outbursts from everyday life, such as a visit to the indoor pool captured by camera frame Simone Hart in cozy colors, in which all worries turn away.
With such a balance, Lehner makes it wonderful (and almost without a didactic monologue) that we cannot solve the structures out of the world that threatens to separate us. But we all have it to strip shame and prejudices in order to deal with more empathic, caring and solidarity.
Conclusion: Marie Luise Lehner's feature film debut “If you are afraid, take your heart in your mouth and smile” is a beautifully-unsaved told mother-daughter and puberty story with realistic figures, which shows with inspiring naturalness how we can find more easily .
We have seen “If you are afraid, you take your heart in your mouth and smile” as part of the Berlinale 2025, where it was shown in the Forum section.