25/09/2024 - Swiss helmer Piet Baumgartner embarks on a sensitive and honest exploration of the healing process of a working-class family after the tragic loss of the daughter

l-r: Vincent Furrer, Bettina Stucky and Phil Hayes in Bagger Drama

Bagger Drama [+see also:
trailer
interview: Piet Baumgartner
film profile] is the debut fiction feature by Swiss director Piet Baumgartner, which is taking part in the New Directors section of the 72nd San Sebastián International Film Festival. The movie begins with the image of a bright-blue sky, obscured by two excavator buckets, which perform a sort of dance that is strange and moving in equal measure. It’s a beautiful way of introducing us to the everyday life of the leading family, made up of a father, a mother and their young son. The three of them work together in the same profession: that of renting out and repairing excavators and other construction machinery. And this trio, as we find out a few minutes into the film, are going through the grieving process after the death of the daughter.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

This loss and the difficulties encountered by the tiny family as they try to soldier on while weighed down by their pain are present throughout the entire running time. But far from revelling in this and underlining the dramatic elements of a situation that’s already tragic enough as it is, Baumgartner decides to place the emphasis on the process of how his individual protagonists rebuild their lives. And this is achieved by making them confront emotions that have been buried over a long period of time and which, once they come to light, completely change the way the characters relate to one another. The lack of communication between the parents and the son, but also within the married couple, which is perhaps not strong enough to withstand the pain that threatens to tear it apart, is the trigger for all of the conflicts that the movie deftly and sensitively portrays. They are all suffering, they are all trying to draw strength from a place where there is none, just so they can solider on, and they all make mistakes. Perhaps the film’s greatest achievement is the skilled way in which it portrays the emotional complexities of its main characters. Without trying to see things in black and white, and steering clear of all artifice, Bagger Drama captures the deep love that this family undoubtedly has for one another. However, it also depicts the less commendable feelings that lead these three lost, wandering souls to hurt the people who best understand their pain: themselves.

The feature unfolds in a straightforward and fluid manner, and the twists and turns in this drama are tackled honestly and intelligently, ensuring that the viewer remains attentive to the development of the characters, with whom we can’t help but empathise. Key to achieving this is the ability of Baumgartner’s camera to capture the details of the environment where his creations live and breathe. The machinery, the industrial unit, the river and the landscape around it... All of this comes together to give rise to incredibly beautiful images of a hugely evocative nature. The best example of this is an emotionally climactic moment that coincides with a choreographed scene that sees excavator buckets swaying in the air. It’s impressive how the movie manages to convey so many profound emotions through the movements of these vast, heartless machines. And speaking of heart, this is exactly what the main characters and the three actors who play them, who all do some sterling work, are certainly not lacking. Vincent Furrer as the son, Phil Hayes in the role of the father and, in particular, Bettina Stucky breathing life into the adorable mother of this family – they regale us with three utterly praiseworthy performances which will be difficult to forget.

Bagger Drama is a production by Swiss company Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion AG.

(Translated from Spanish)