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FILMS / REVIEWS Luxembourg / Italy / Austria

Review: The Mariana Trench

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- Eileen Byrne’s feature film debut is a road movie exploring themes such as suffering and loss, tinged with surreal humour and enhanced by the chemistry between its two protagonists

Review: The Mariana Trench
Edgar Selge and Luna Wedler in The Mariana Trench

A debut feature film by director Eileen Byrne, The Mariana Trench [+see also:
trailer
interview: Eileen Byrne
film profile
]
is a road movie exploring profound themes such as suffering, loss and feelings of guilt. Originally from Luxembourg, Byrne graduated from Monaco’s HFF with a short film entitled Touch Me, about how being diagnosed with a breast tumour impacts the relationship between a woman and her partner which had previously been known for its intensity. Based on Jasmin Schreiber’s bestselling novel of the same name, The Mariana Trench follows the journey embarked upon by a pair of seemingly incompatible characters: Paula, played by young Swiss actress Luna Wedler (a Shooting Star of 2018) and Helmut, embodied by one of the most famous German character actors, Edgar Selge (who’s 76 years old and mostly known in Germany as Commissioner Tauber from the TV series Polizeiruf 110).

The story unfurls between drama and comedy, through a series of events which confront our protagonists with their pain and see them finding unexpected comfort in one another’s company. Paula is tormented by feelings of guilt over the death of her little brother Tim (Willie Vonnemann), who drowned in Trieste while she was distracted. She’s dropped out of studying Marine Biology and has cut herself off from the world, incapable of overcoming her grief. She meets eccentric Helmut in the middle of the night in a cemetery, when visiting Tim’s grave. The elderly man asks for her help unearthing the urn carrying his ex-wife Helga’s ashes so that he can take them to South Tyrol where the couple lived. Having made their escape from the cemetery, Paula forces surly Helmut to give her a ride to Italy in his old camper van: she wants to make it to Trieste by her little brother’s birthday. Over the course of the journey, Paula discovers that Helmut is still obsessed with the death of his only son, who died 50 years earlier in circumstances highly similar to Tim’s.

Despite their generational differences and clashing characters, and through conflict and moments of intimacy which see them both trying to face up to their traumas, the pair forge a profound connection. The chemistry between the two actors is clear, and it helps lend credibility to the evolution of their relationship. Luna Wedler’s performance is intense and convincing, successfully conveying the depth of her pain and the complexity of her emotions and making her inner struggle tangible. Edgar Selge provides a nuanced depiction of a vulnerable man who hides his wounds behind a facade of cynicism. The road trip acts as a metaphor for the protagonists’ inner journey and the travel sequences are buoyed by moments of surreal humour, such as when the deceased Helga’s ashes end up on Paula’s face (just like in the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski) or when a group of nudists turn up to bathe in the lake where Helmut met his wife and where he’s currently scattering her ashes.

Panoramic shots of natural landscapes, filmed by director of photography Petra Korner, provide moments to reflect and emphasise the beauty of the outside world versus the characters’ inner tumult. The film’s insistence on the metaphor of water representing Paula’s emotional state – more than once we see her being dragged into the depths of the notorious, titular Mariana Trench in dreamlike sequences – might feel too obvious, and some of the plot twists too common to all those other films revolving around “a journey to scatter ashes”, but the director’s intention is clearly and commendably to reach a wider audience. The Mariana Trench is recommended for audiences aged 14 years and older, due to its deeply emotional story which offers an honest examination of grief and the possibility of finding hope in the very darkest of situations.

The Mariana Trench was produced by Samsa Film (Luxembourg) in co-production with Albolina Film (Italy) and Film AG (Austria).

(Translated from Italian)

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