‘Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything’ review [Berlinale]

3 Days In Quiberon director Emily Atef co-writes and helms this ’90s-set drama set in rural East Germany, a plodding tale of a young woman who strays from her wannabe photographer boyfriend to have a steamy affair with a much older farmer.

There’s actually a lot to like about Atef’s latest, Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything, and for most of the movie, I was willing to go along with proceedings. As you can tell from my brief description above, the storyline is relatively simple, but this 135-minute opus manages to draw things out much longer than needed, culminating in a butt-numbing number, full of repetitive rural ruttings that’ll have even the horniest viewer relieved to be heading for the exits as the final credits roll.

Marlene Burow is our lead playing 18-year-old Maria who is now living with her boyfriend and his family in the countryside in East Germany. It is 1990 and the divide between east and west is gone, and Maria spends most of her days reading books by the riverside, content with her lot in life. She’s happy with her boyfriend, Johannes (Cedric Eich), but he’s reaching a fork in the road and must decide whether he is to go away and study. He’s into photography and whisks Maria off to Munich one day where he buys an expensive medium-format camera, much to her bemusement. When returning, Maria stumbles into the path of neighbouring farmer, 40-year-old Henner (Felix Kramer), and there is an immediate spark of lust between them. An affair starts and the two manage to keep things secret from other; Johannes family just yards away, and also Maria’s mother, who lives alone up the road after her father ran off with a much younger woman. The film charts the long summer of ’90, and the intense affair as it continues to blossom, but is there ultimate doom approaching for the pair? What will become of them and those around them?

I was not aware of the story or the book of the same name by Daniela Krien, on which the film is based, but the story goes in the exact same direction and conclusion as you might expect it to. More of a journey than a destination piece, though, Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything is full of solid performances from its cast, notable Burow in the lead role. Kramer, too, is excellent, and the early scenes, particularly the initial meetings of their two characters are intense, well, and fearlessly performed, largely without dialogue. There are a lot of subplots as well to get your teeth into, as well as that interesting backdrop of the Iron Curtain dropping, but ultimately, I found it to drag, especially from the midway point, and I was forever urging the film to get to the climax that we, by that point, were all expecting.

Despite the bloat, the film is beautiful to look at, largely well-staged, and a late-on story point that did come from nowhere, certainly regained my interest. The film won’t be for all, but those redeeming qualities mentioned above, just about manage to save it.

Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything was reviewed at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival.