12/02/2013 - German Lars Kraume returns for the third time with a film in the Panorama section at the Berlinale

My Sisters [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Meine Schwestern) by German director Lars Kraume is his third feature length film to be inserted in the Panorama section of the Berlin Festival after No songs of love (2005) and Good Morning, Mr. Grothe (2007).

Just like in his last two films, My sisters features a relationship as the centre for a plot. This time it is not between two lovers, but rather between three very close sisters.

The director makes the storyline clear immediately: Linda (Jördis Triebel, Die Papsten in 2009), who     was born with a severe heart disease, dies after a difficult intervention and through voiceover, introduces her sisters Katharina (Nina Kunzendorfe, in 2003 in Rosenstrasse) and Clara (Lisa Hagmeister).

No longer having to worry about whether or not she would come through the operation, Linda’s narration concentrates on the events from the weekend before, when she decided to spend the time she had left in the resort she used to go to on holiday as a child.

Enter her two sisters. Oldest sister Katharina is strong, structured and organized, while the younger is fragile, confused and enthusiastic.

What follows is a weak and uncertain story which brings the three women from the German countryside to Paris for a journey tied together only thanks to Linda’s constant pains.

Respecting the precious Routard guidelines, Kraume is sure to include all touristic must-dos: a quaint hotel, red wine, a bohemian encounter, climbing the Sacre Coeur stairs in Montmartre.

Beyond this, a few more reassuring clichés, used at the most opportune of moments: a kiss with a charming man during a party with beautiful and elegant people, or trying to be brave as the fatal hour approaches with tears and laughter shared with loved ones. 

This would have been better suited to television than cinema. In fact, Kraume has experience in television having directed a few episodes of the popular German Tatort series. My sisters will easily find its place in the public television NDR timeslots, which coproduced it together with German Badland Films and Arte France.  

(Translated from Italian)