The Panorama strand at the Berlinale each year is always the one I look forward to as there are so many gems to be found in the line-up. One such film is Bliss, or Glück in its native German tongue. Set primarily in Berlin where it gets its world premiere, and focussing on two women working at of the city’s many legal brothels, the second feature from Henrika Kull is a beautifully-made piece, with two excellent central performances from Katharina Behrens and Adam Hoya.
The film begins with Hoya’s Maria running up to an apartment block to call out for Sascha (Behrens). It’s an almost ‘Romeo and Juliet’ moment that we’ll have to wait 90 minutes to see it put into any context. After that initial scene, we back-track to a the brothel in which Sascha has been working for some considerable time. Maria is the new girl, introduced by the site’s Madame to the group of girls lining up to join the ‘John’ that has requested them for an evening’s entertainment. The first meeting between Sascha and Maria sees the two immediately hit it off, and the film charts their time together over a number of weeks, both inside and more intimately, outside of the walls of the Berlin brothel as their relationship evolves.
What immediately hits you with this stunning piece of naturalistic work, is how sex is indeed portrayed on-screen. Sex within the brothel between the men and the women is completely unsexy; merely what it is a task, the job, and an honest one at that between client and customer. The routine of the act is not gratuitous, but Kull’s camera doesn’t shy away from the subject matter either. On the opposite side of the coin, sex between Sascha and Maria is depicted and performed with such unrelenting, natural lust and passion that it lights up the screen, and the relationship between the two is wonderfully naturalistic and believably performed.
Hoya and Behrens are exceptional, as is most of this relatively unknown cast, while Kull’s direction and screenplay provide an engrossing watch from the outset to the end frames. A breezy 90-minutes fly by, and we find ourselves back at the Shakespearian predicament before we know it. It’s a wonderful film; true-to-life and sweet, while also completely intrinsic and utterly beautiful. A real find.
Bliss, or (Glück) plays in the Panorama strand at the 71st Berlin Film Festival.
Bliss
Summary
A beautifully made love story, brilliantly and naturally performed by its two central actors. A true stand-out in the Panorama strand at this year’s Berlinale.
