QUICK AND DIRTY: LIVE FROM BERLIN

The action takes place in the sleepy German town of Brandenburg, almost immediately adjacent from Berlin yet a far cry from the hustle and bustle of the German capital. Here the buildings are sparse, the lake numerous, and the cars far and few between. Forty-eight-year-old Isabell (Nina Hoss) is back to her birth place after breaking up with her French partner Philippe (Vincent Macaigne), and forsaking Marseille. A toxic mixture of control freak and drama queen, he abandoned her at the airport just as they were about to go on holiday, conveniently pursuing the travels on his own.

Isabell has returned to Germany because she is concerned about the wellbeing of her parents, particularly her frail and wheelchair-bound father. He suffered a stroke a couple of decades earlier, leaving his body partly paralysed and in constant need of specialist care. His temperament, combined with his excessive weight, help to ensure that no carer remains in the job longer than a few weeks (a Polish worker ends up in hospital with a broken foot almost immediately after taking up the new position). Anja (Saskia Rosendahl) is a single working mother fired from her restaurant job for no apparent reason. She has to make ends meet with just €250 a month, while also looking after Greta, a headstrong and explosive little girl aged three or four. Selling her motorbike for a further €350 won’t solve her problems, while a new job may have unexpected surprises in store.

All characters of Cicadas are largely lonely and vulnerable. They remain unable to relate to each other for a variety of reasons. Isabell and Anja strike an unlikely friendship (perhaps even a romance?), yet their class gap makes interactions often awkward. Isabell comes from a privileged background, her father once a renowned architect, their house dotted with expensive furnishings and art pieces. Anja hardly has the means to survive. and no family within sight to support her, financially or emotionally. They eventually overcome their differences, yet both remain consumed by their own problems. There are few possibilities to work on a more robust relationship when two people have to grapple with far more mundane issue.

Cicadas is a very convincing movie, with mostly round characters, and very strong performances. The script never lapses into cliches. The humanistic touch and the social concerns may bring Mike Leigh to mind, if a lot more stoical. A monotonous piano score repeatedly asks us to pity these characters, offering them few possibilities of resolution and redemption. One remark at the end of Ina Weisse’s third feature film suggests that viewers should make sense of the film in the same way as new residents must furnish an empty house: “the architect only gives you the frame, you do what you want with the rest”.

In a way, Isabell, her parents, Anja and Philippe are just as unstable as the buildings in the region, which were precariously erected on marshlands. The concern that Berlin and its surroundings are sinking is one shared with the characters of Christian Petzold’s Undine (2020). The parallels with architecture are presumably nothing new to the German director: her first feature film is called The Architect (2008). Overall, this is a film with a solid foundation. On the other hands, this is a familiar construction with little engineering audacity. A functional creation, however lacking a little edge.