Worst or masterpiece: The film starring Vladimir Vulević divided critics in Berlin

The works of the German author and director Angela Shanelek rarely leave anyone indifferent. Her films, which have appeared at festivals so far, have regularly caused divisions among the audience, but they have also regularly won awards. The last time it happened was in 2023, when it was for a movie "Music" received the Silver Bear for the screenplay, and four years before that she was awarded the Silver Bear for directing the film "I was at home, but…"

Worst movie or masterpiece?

In the main program of this year Berlinale included her latest film, "My Wife is Crying" (My wife is crying), who already shared criticism after the first screenings. For some, it is the "worst film of the Berlinale" (Berliner Morgenpost), for others "a German masterpiece at the Berlinale" (Film review).

What most critics agree on, even when they avoid evaluating the film, is that Angela Chanelek has once again managed to make a film "out of the box". There are still a few days left until the end of the Berlinale and the announcement of the winner (February 21), and after half of the festival, the critics have not yet decided on a clear favorite.

What makes the film "My Wife Crying" interesting for the Serbian audience is the fact that the main role is played by Vladimir Vulević, a Serbian writer, director and actor with a Berlin address. This is already news, because films from Southeast Europe have not been in the main program for years.

But how did Vladimir Vulević find himself in the center of Angela Šanelek's hermetic German arthouse world?

"I spent several years in her class, so even before this I was familiar not only with her filmography, but also with her work," reveals Vulević in an interview with DW, who came to Hamburg ten years ago to study directing and completed them in the class of director and professor Šanelek.

Language as a barrier

Vulevic plays the main male role in the film - the crane driver Thomas who, while at work, is told that his wife Klara is in the hospital. From that moment on, the film turns into a series of monologues that, although they take place in the presence of others, never turn into dialogue or conversation, but into a kind of nightmare of disconnected information.

Communication is impossible, and the fact that both main protagonists are actors whose German is not their native language contributes to the special feeling of alienation due to words spoken in vain.

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Vladimir Vulević says that it took a lot of effort to learn the text that Šanelek wrote - the German is complex and academic. A text that sounds completely out of context when uttered in everyday conversation by a couple who are in a latent conflict and whose language is not their native language.

"The more you talk, the less you get to the person you're talking to. It's a situation between a couple who may still love each other, but who simply can't reach each other. And the more you talk, the less understanding there is," says Vulević.

For him, it is a question of the impossibility of communication, the impossibility of reaching the interlocutor, and not only on an intimate, personal level. It also has a political connotation, especially if we take into account the discussion about migration and language learning as one of the main instruments of the so-called integration.

A politicized political festival

This is where we come to the obligatory question of Berlinale as a politically colored festival. Namely, because of the possibly misunderstood statement of the president of the jury, German film legend Wim Wenders, who, when asked about the attitude towards the events in Gaza, said that the film should not deal with politics but rather influence politics - the festival drew the ire of pro-Palestinian activists.

Although "My Wife is Crying" is one of the more apolitical works at the festival, which is otherwise full of politics and political messages, the discussion surrounding Wenders reached the film's crew as well.

For Vulevic, such a question is inappropriate at the beginning of a film festival. "I understand such a question, I don't necessarily understand that it is the first question that is asked at the film festival, because this is not a meeting of NATO in Brussels, but a film festival. And it would be appropriate if the first few questions were about the film. But, at the same time, it would not be normal for me if such questions did not exist at the film festival as well," Vulević concludes.

Source: Deutsche Welle (DW)