April 29 & May 3: “Fraulein” is a German, Swiss, and Bosnian film about three Eastern European women who all seem to be both psychologically and physically displaced.
Sun Apr 29 8:15pm Indy Men’s Magazine Screening Room (Landmark)
Thur May 3 9:15pm Key Cinemas
Fraulein is a tale of three displaced and quietly sorrowful women. Their age difference means little – each has been ripped away from their homelands. Ana, the youngest of the trio, sadly declares, “No one calls it
Yugoslavia anymore.” Despite her youth Ana has the most to teach the women and makes a deep impression on Ruza.
Writer/director Andrea Staka’s Das Fräulein paints an exceptionally sensitive, multilayered, and richly textured portrait of a blossoming friendship between two adult women. Mirjana Karanovic is Ruza, a Slavic émigré in her fifties, who years ago transplanted herself from her native Serbia to
Zurich, Switzerland. Quiet, introverted, and stoic, she runs a canteen business in the city and trusts absolutely no one, building her life exclusively around income. She and her Croatian associate, Mila (Ljubica Jovic), are confronted with the sudden arrival of Ana (Marija Skaricic), a much younger Bosnian drifter, who enchants Ruza with her fresh spontaneity and zest for life, but still draws some coldness from the Serbian woman. Despite a shared ethnic background, Ruza initially insists on communicating with Ana in German and scarcely acknowledges their common cultural identity. Nonetheless, in time, barriers begin to recede, and a tenuous, delicate bond of friendship forms between the two women. Staka uses the bulk of the drama to explore this relationship in all of its nuances and complexities, conveying the women’s inner emotional landscapes with an intelligent use of cinematic language and visual flourishes. Instead of simply using
Zurich as a backdrop, Staka employs the city — both cosmopolitan and yet somewhat distancing — as one of the story’s central characters.
If you like this film, see “Adrift in Manhattan” for a perspective of similar characters in the
US.
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April 30th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
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