Presented as a world premiere at Filmfest München, where it is competing in the CineCoPro category, I’m Not Stiller [+lire aussi :
interview : Stefan Haupt
fiche film] by Swiss director Stefan Haupt makes use of an exceptional cast, namely Albrecht Schuch and Paula Beer in the main roles, to adapt one of the most emblematic novels by Max Frisch, one of the giants of German literature.

I’m Not Stiller is an enigmatic film that revolves around the theme, so dear to the Swiss writer, of identity. At the centre of the narration, we find Mister White (Albrecht Schuch), a young and dynamic American man born in Zurich. Back in his hometown, White finds himself confronted with what he defines as a case of mistaken identity. All are indeed convinced that he is Anatol Stiller, a prominent sculptor who mysteriously disappeared seven years prior. Things get complicated further due to the fact that Stiller is accused of being a spy, a traitor, which is why Mr. White is immediately arrested when he arrives in Switzerland. Although James White continues to claim that he isn’t the alleged sculptor, everyone, including Stiller’s wife Julika (Paula Beer), are convinced that he is lying. What if Stiller truly had a doppelganger?  What truth is hidden behind White’s stubbornness? I’m Not Stiller pushes the audience to reflect on the very concept of reality and its limits. And what if language were insufficient to express it? And if the couple, as heteropatriarchal society intends, were nothing more than a painful imposition?

Immersed in an atmosphere with Hitchcockian tones, the films pushes spectators to wonder about the possibility of starting over as though life were not one but multiple, as though we could weave an infinite number of social, sentimental and familial bonds, as though we could truly feel free to be what we want to be. White’s stubbornness, but also his lightheartedness, his extolling of the progress and grandeur of the United States while highlighting the excessive Swiss fussiness, draws of Max Frisch’s own imagination, his desire to criticise a society that he knew all too well.

Although the filmmaker has opted for a rather classical adaptation of the novel, the fact that he puts Stiller’s wife Julika, a classical ballerina forced to stop performing due to tuberculosis, at the centre of the story, makes it very modern. Julika is in fact an independent and ambitious woman despite the limitations of the society in which she lives, an artist not satisfied with the role of muse. This rebellious aspect (in that regard, the scene where she states in no uncertain terms to her husband that she has no intention of abandoning her career to have children, is very interesting) transforms her into the heroine, in all senses of the word, of a story initially constructed around a male character.

Classical in its form yet modern in its themes, I’m Not Stiller remains faithful to Max Frisch’s novel while nevertheless bringing a personal touch. In that sense, the young age of the two main characters offers the film an undeniably welcome freshness.

I’m Not Stiller was produced by C-Films AG (Switzerland), Walker + Worm Film (Germany), and co-produced by Studiocanal GmbH (Germany) and the SRF.