A woman faces a variety of emotional crises as she spends the summer interacting in differing ways with friends, family, and lovers in this drama. Valerie (Ursina Lardi) is an author in her early thirties who has just moved to Berlin, while her best friend Sophie (Nina Weniger) will be spending the summer in Rome. Valerie falls into an affair with Thomas (Andreas Patton), a photographer who recently divorced his wife and is now caring for his four-year-old son on his own. As Valerie adjusts to her new relationship without her friend for support, she is also thrown into emotional turmoil when her father is rushed to the hospital, near death.
Angela Schanelec was born in 1962. She studied Acting at the College of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main and worked at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, Berlin’s Schaubühne and the Schauspielhaus in Bochum. She studied at the German Film & Television Academy (dffb) in Berlin from 1990-1995, graduating with Das Glück meiner Schwester/My Sister’s Good Fortune, winner of the German Critics’ Prize 1996. Her other films include Schöne gelbe farbe (1991), Weit Entfernt (1991), Prag, März 92 (1992), Ich bin den Sommer über in Berlin geblieben (1993), Plätze in Städten/Places in the City (1997/98) at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 1998, Mein langsames Leben/Passing Summerr (2001) presented at the Berlinale’s Forum in 2001, and Marseille (2004) also at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard. —Goethe-Institut
