Barrage review [Berlinale 2017]: Isabelle Huppert supports an outstanding central performance by her real-life daughter Lolita Chammah in this thought-provoking, intensely raw drama from Laura Schroeder.
Barrage review by Paul Heath, Berlin Film Festival 2017.
Barrage review
Isabelle Huppert returns to Berlin Film Festival with a strong supporting role opposite Lolita Chammah (Huppert’s real-life daughter) in this brooding drama from filmmaker Laura Schroeder (Schatzritter).
The story revolves around Chammah’s character Catherine, a drifter who returns to Luxembourg from a ten year stay in Switzerland. During that time, her mother Elizabeth has been raising her young daughter Alba (Themis Pauwels), and a reintroduction has been long over-due. After watching anonymously from the side-lines of an indoor tennis court with her mother over-coaching the young Alba, a mirror image from her own past, Catherine kidnaps her daughter and they embark on a road trip together, the mother clearly attempting to find out if there is any kind of relationship to embrace between them.
Barrage review
Catherine and Alba head to the family’s solitary summer house in the country where further attempts are made, the two facing up past and present issues head-on. Barrage is a stirring drama so intricately presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio which only adds to its claustrophobic, very intimate, personal feel.
What strikes you almost immediately about Barrage is its over-powering rawness, both in its presentation, highly-skilled direction and superbly crafted acting. Huppert, whose character largely book-ends the film in terms of screen time, presents a turn only overshadowed by her daughter’s apparent hereditary gift for the performing arts. Chammah is simply outstanding in the clearly tortured role of Catherine, a supremely nuanced and highly admirable performance and a clear indicator of very positive things to come. Huppert definitely makes it three for three following last year’s Berlinale favourite Things To Come and her Oscar-nominated turn in Berlin 2017 jury president Paul Verhoeven’s Elle. While she’s willing to take a back seat here, she’s even more willing to take risks in her contrasting career choices. Plaudits also must go to the young actor Pauwels, who nearly matches the over-powering presence of her older peers.
The positive nature of this review should also reflect the work of the director and co-writer in Schroeder, an emerging new talent and another to watch as she has definitely delivered one of the first true delights of this year’s Berlinale. A must.
Barrage review by Paul Heath, Berlin Film Festival 2017.
Barrage plays in the Forum section of the 2017 Berlinale.
