Exploring love and adaptation in Wallace Line
Franz Müller’s Wallace Line [+see also:
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film profile], screening in competition at the Crossing Europe Film Festival in Linz, combines elements of unadorned, realist drama and traditional love story in a believable and moving meditation of the various natures of love.
Spanish actor Àlex Brendemühl gives a seamless performance as Robert, a German tree surgeon who initially appears to be a bit slow but who actually prefers his life uncomplicated and cleared of obstructions. Starring opposite him is Marie-Lou Sellem as Maren, a self-described “educated woman” who has sought out a man with a humble background.
After a false start, their romance blossoms owing to Robert's perseverance. Maren soon moves into Robert's gemütlich home in an idyllic neighborhood of frolicking squirrels and leafy trees. Robert and Maren are so involved that they overlook the obvious attraction their teenage children have for one another.
Robert's son Daniel (Tim Hoffman) is a quiet, simple young man who takes after his father. Maren's daughter Mira (Katharina Derr) appears to have inherited a fairly predatory approach to life and love from her mother.
The two couples try to live under one roof for a time but seem to repel each other like the atoms that keep cropping up in the characters' conversations. They willfully misunderstand one another and become disingenuous when the truth proves too inconvenient.
As the separate romances dissolve, it becomes clear that the love of children in the original title, Die Liebe der Kinder, is quite alien to that of adults. (The English title refers to a boundary between two contrasting ecozones in the East Indies, named after 19th century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, about whom Maren is writing a book.) The story also suggests that love must evolve if it is to survive.
Müller's script is efficient enough to keep the plot brisk — and gives cinematographer Christine A. Maier opportunity to create interstices of nature photography between chapters. The writing is far from spare, however, and the audience can see the debt he owes (and acknowledges) to Tolstoy.
Wallace Line saw its premiere last summer at the Munich Film Festival. It is produced by 2Pilots Filmproduction. Wide Management is handling international sales.
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