The State I Am In film review

LONELY WALKER'S REVIEW

A commercial pop tune with English lyrics weaves its way through a quiet world. Its eerie contrast with the empty pier cafe where our heroine sits, smoking her way through a packet of cigarettes and looking too old for her fifteen years, sets the tone for the entire movie. The State I Am In could easily be mistaken for a documentary, a fly-on-the-wall piece about the family troubles of a German teenager and her first love, an fast food worker who dreams of Sunset Beach and Brian Wilson.

If it were only this, the film would still be enthralling, due to the complex relationships between Jeanne, her parents, surfer boy Heinrich, and the realities of the world. However, the realities of Jeanne's world are slightly different to those of Heinrich's. While he is a poor orphan boy destined to always flip burgers, she is on the run, and has always been on the run. She can never stay in one place too long, never connect with anyone, never go to school, never get a job, never date a boy. Her parents are, for reasons only to be guessed at, fugitives from the German state who would face life imprisonment if caught. The film charts their struggle to stay one step ahead of the law while Jeanne struggles with the decision of either following her heart and carving out a life for herself, or remaining loyal to her parents - on the run and constantly in danger.

Jeanne and Heinrich

The State I Am In deals with alienation in several ways. Jeanne and her parents are outcasts from their own country. Her parents no longer love each other, but cannot part ways after more than twenty years with no connection to anyone else. Jeanne herself, banned from talking to anyone by her parents, can only make fleeting connections with other people over a cigarette and then never see them again. She is alienated also from her own life. As Jeanne was born a fugitive, she has no identity separate from that of her parents. While she constantly lies a life for herself, she remains the tool of her parents, often playing their role as protector. Somehow, the conflict between the intelligent, talented and happy person she should be, and the non-person she is must be resolved, with Heinrich and her parents caught in the crossfire.

I had no high hopes for The State I Am In, having never heard anything about it before this UK premiere at the EIFF while what I subsequently read seemed to portray it as a pale copy of Running On Empty. The facts of the matter are even more depressing in retrospect, as it seems to squarely fit in the "arthouse flick" category. Firstly, it is an almost entirely German-language film, requiring speed-reading of mis-spelt subtitles which often didn't correspond exactly to what was actually being said. Secondly, several scenes are played out in silence, while Petzold appears to specialise in long, lingering (although admittedly beautiful) shots which could easily be stills. Thirdly, there is a very small cast of characters, whose back story remains ambiguous.

Richy Müller ,Julia Hummer and Barbara Auer

Jeanne and her parents

All of these points could have been major stumbling blocks for a lesser film. I write this a week after seeing the film, and forgot for a good three paragraphs that this was a German-language movie. Petzold's deceptively normal lighting and sound techniques serve primarily to connect with the four main characters, none of whom are stunningly beautiful, intelligent or funny. Despite their unusual situation, Jeanne and her parents have a disarmingly real relationship, bickering about clothes and homework, while Heinrich is no romantic leading man. Julia Hummer and Bilge Bingül, as Jeanne and Heinrich, are touchingly realistic, and I would gladly watch them in other roles, especially Hummer, who is the vital centre of the film. Jeanne's parents, as portrayed by Richy Müller and Barbara Auer, are given fewer opportunities to voice their emotions. While very few facts are given about these two, their characters are sufficiently both realistic and enigmatic to keep them interesting. Jeanne, of course, does not understand her parents, but who does? One to watch.

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