Everytime

The lives of three people are thrown into disarray after a loss. This Cannes winner unfolds like a long dream built out of different forms of grief, taking us from Berlin on a surreal journey to Tenerife.

Director
Sandra Wollner
Starring
Birgit Minichmayr, Tristán López, Lotte Keiling
Country
Austria, Germany
Languages
German
Subtitles
English
Age limit
K12
Duration
124 min
Theme
Keywords
Grief, Weird, Family ties, Journey, Memory

A mother (Birgit Minchmayr) and her two daughters (Lotte Keiling, Carla Hütterman) lead a pretty ordinary life in their undersized home in Berlin, when tragedy strikes on the eve of a beach holiday. After the event, the survivors tend to the grave, eat sausages, and play video games with the older daughter’s sweetheart (Tristan Lopéz).

The winner of this year’s Un Certain Regard section at Cannes is like a long dream about the different faces of grief. In mourning, the progress of one’s own life is reduced to glimpses as memories both true and false fight to take over conscious thought. Defiant and impulsive behaviours alternate like for a restless child, shattering the safe chronology of everyday life.

The film by Austrian writer-director Sandra Wollner takes place half in Berlin, half on Tenerife. Despite the disjunction between smooth concrete bunkers and sharp lava rock beaches, it seems the scorching sun is the same all throughout.

Cinematographer Gregory Oke (Aftersun, R&A Spring Break 2023) works real magic. A tense, blurry tracking shot of the rising sun early in the film never truly reaches its target, and it is this very reaching that functions as the core of the whole film.

Johanna Siik (translated by Adrian Murtomäki)

Screenings

  • Kino Töölö
    Sun 20.9. at 12.00–14.04
    124 min, 1/3
  • Maxim 2
    Wed 23.9. at 20.15–22.19
    124 min, 2/3
  • Gilda 2
    Fri 25.9. at 17.30–19.34
    124 min, 3/3
Year
2026
Distributor
Charades
Links

Trailer