Cinéma Goethe in Québec
Die Reise nach Jerusalem
Director: Lucia Chiarla, Germany, 2018, 120 min.
With: Eva Löbau, Beniamino Brogi, Veronika Nowag-Jones, Axel Werner
German with French subtitles
The chairs game is a game in which you need luck: You need to be in the right place at the right time – otherwise you won’t get a seat. Alice (played by Eva Löbau, famous for her leading role in Maren Ade's
The Forest for the Trees), 39, single and unemployed can no longer win at this silly game. The unemployment office keeps sending her to job application trainings. Yet, Alice knows they won’t lead her to stop waiting in line. Hence, one morning she decides to interrupt one of them. Her unemployment benefits are then reduced, and money gets tight. Her parents and friends have no idea of the kind of chaos in which Alice finds herself since she is a proficient liar. Her persistent search to be socially accepted cannot prevent her from getting lonelier and lonelier. She keeps herself stubbornly afloat with gas vouchers, which she gets for participating in market research, and tries to once again take control of her tattered life.
"The main strength of the film is the authenticity of its dialogue and its careful observation of everyday life. Chiarla uses a laconic narrative style that implies a certain irony, which enables the film to swing between black comedy and drama. It amuses and disturbs at the same time." - Teresa Vena, Cineuropa
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