Review: Longing for the World
- BERLINALE 2023: Jenna Hasse’s debut feature film follows three characters on the banks of Lake Geneva who are struggling to find their place in the world
The career of Swiss-Portuguese director Jenna Hasse began immediately after she obtained her acting diploma from INSAS in Brussels. She never felt the need to choose between stepping behind the cameras or in front of them: as well as building up her acting experience (in films and theatres), the Swiss-born and bred director straight away felt the need to create her own films, which were subsequently presented in a variety of international festivals where they scooped various awards. Her first short film In August was presented in a world premiere in Cannes’ Critics’ Week and, four productions later, her first ever feature film Longing for the World [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is making its debut in the 73rd Berlinale’s Generation line-up.
The film might be considered a kind of conclusive chapter to an autobiographical trilogy initiated via In August, a glimpse of a carefree childhood abruptly interrupted by the departure of one of her parents, which was followed up two years later by Soltar, recounting a young couple’s troubling journey to Portugal, and concluded on the banks of Lake Geneva where the director was born and bred.
Margaux, the name of the protagonist in all three films (the first and last played by Clarisse Moussa, first as a child and now an adolescent, and the second by Hasse herself), is described by the director as an alter ego of sorts, “a character who came to me, inspired by the women around me, my family story and the places where I grew up”. Like Kacey Mottet Klein in Ursula Meier’s films, Clarisse Moussa is growing up under the attentive eye of Jenna Hasse, who turns her into a heroine of an elegantly cruel trilogy. Longing for the World is based on Swiss writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz’s novel (1928) which lends the film its magnificent yet occasionally claustrophobic landscape. Lake Geneva, the towns it touches, and the nature which encircles it, act as a backdrop to the story of Margaux, a fourteen-year-old girl who’s spending the summer with her dad - who’s living in an unlikely hotel - while she’s enrolled on an internship in an institute taking of children in need. On her very first day on the job, Margaux meets Juliette (Esin Demircan), a sharp and high-spirited girl with whom she forges a strong and special bond. Together, they make the acquaintance of Joël (Marc Oosterhoff), a young fisherman who’s returned to Switzerland following his mother’s death and who can’t wait to get back to Thailand. The majestic yet sleepy landscape which provides a backdrop for the three protagonists’ wanderings lends the film a bit of atmosphere whilst also making it unsettling. Suffocated by the boredom of summer to which they succumb without too much resistance, Margaux, Juliette and Joël seem to gradually slide outside of reality. Increasingly heedless of the consequences of her acts, Margaux allows herself an unexpected, cathartic moment of freedom, sampling the joys of transgression for the first time before potentially returning to the lethargy of summer.
Taking a discreet yet powerful approach to depict the birth of an out-of-the-ordinary friendship, Longing for the World is a sophisticated and aesthetically appealing first film, buoyed by a perfectly cast trio of actors and breath-taking photography (Valentina Provini).
Longing for the World is produced by Langfilm – Bernard Lang AG, RTS Radio Télévision Suisse and Galão com Açúcar. Latido Films are managing international sales.
(Translated from Italian)
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