Six -week office movie review

In Jacqueline Jansen's autofictional feature film debut “Six -week office“Is the death of a person who has been at the end, but the starting point. The first scene lets us participate in the final breath of the seriously ill Martha, whose daughter Lore watches on her bed. The film then accompanies her in the weeks after this moment when she has to struggle with grief, bureaucracy, family conflicts and social expectations. Embedded in the first weeks of Corona Pandemia, “Six Wochen” by a woman who feels lonely and overwhelmed, who still has to work. A Rheinische Drama full of emotional hardness and quiet comedy, which was awarded the new German cinema in the area of production for the courageous project implementation beyond established structures and for the outstanding representation of Magdalena Laubisch (“Love Addicts”).

In Erkelenz, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lore's mother Martha (Suzanne Ziellenbach) dies in a hospice after a long cancer at the age of only 55. Overwhelmed by organizing the funeral, Lore (Magdalena Laubisch) is struggling to enable sea burial as the last wish of her mother. However, this type of funeral is neither legally permitted nor church, and grandmother Inge (Gerta Gormanns) is also not good for the project. According to her will, the deceased should receive a traditional funeral. Lore's sister Sophie (Lola Klamroth), in turn, does not want to take the trouble to return to the old homeland – and nobody else seems to really go into lore or want to take part in her grief …

In the first few minutes of “six -week office”, the heavy breathing of Lore's mother is heard, followed by a long final sigh, which is death. What follows is not a classic drama about saying goodbye, but a quiet, sometimes somewhat brittle film about the afterwards, i.e. dealing with the emptiness and the rules and impositions that have to be dealt with with which the bereaved must also deal with. Director Jansen, who processed her own experience in her feature film debut, authentically captures this special emotional state of exception, with her staging the feeling of isolation. The camera often remains static and many scenes seem almost documentary. There is no music or explanatory flashbacks. In this way, one only learns casually in subordinate clauses that Lore probably broke off her studies, Martha did not line up in the village community throughout his life and that the family has to deal with financial problems. The local dialect, which is often heard, is strongly anchored in the local.

“Six weeks” also has a grueling -lhargic effect in parts. In its best moments, the film combines precisely observed everyday realism with a peculiar, almost laconic comedy. For example, if the neighbor is too quickly passed on her exploration of the condolence in questions about the continued existence of Martha's apartment and an open flat rate for mowing the lawn or the priest shows more interest in furniture donations than in the salvation of the deceased and their survivors. As inappropriate and sometimes absurd these conversations run, they appear too well -known and (frightening) realistic. You don't really know how to react and literally feel how it is boiling in Lore. How to annoy, nerve and graze how to ignore the ignorance and the lack of compassion of their fellow human beings. And how she mostly ends up stoically and imposes impending potential conflicts. Probably also because in her situation she simply can no longer raise strength for clashes.

Magdelena Laubisch also wears the film almost alone

At the center of the production realized with low means is Magdalena Delaubisch, who, with her pointed, wonderfully withdrawn game, conveys the emotional world of a grieving in a subtle and urgent way. After the death of her mother, Lore simply has to regulate everything alone, from the funeral to the funeral service and resolution to bureaucratic hurdles. Your environment shows initial sympathy, but withdraws quickly, so it is never allowed to simply indulge in her pain. This area of tension made of grief, overwhelming and interior merging alone through small gestures and looks.

Conclusion: “Six weeks office” accompanies the protagonist mourning around her mother between excessive demands, speechlessness and silent loneliness. In reduced pictures and long attitudes, director, screenwriter and producer Jacqueline Jansen tells of struggle for grief in a world that continues to close through the Corona pandemic. In doing so, he focuses on interpersonal cracks and the main character embodied by Magdalena Laubisch, who tries to make their own way through an emotionally demanding time.

We saw “six -week office” at the Munich Film Festival, where it was shown as part of the series of new German cinema.