Fräulein

When Ana, a young Bosnian woman, gets a job helping out at the Zurich canteen run by middle-aged Serbian expat Ruza, her apparently hedonistic, free-spirited and outgoing approach to life first irritates and then gets under the skin of her notoriously reserved and professional formal boss. But even her more relaxed and welcoming workmates don’t know what makes Ana tick… An impressively assured and eloquent account of the experiences of Eastern/Central European émigrés living and working in Zurich, Staka’s first feature manages to engage and hold our attention thanks not only to fine performances and camerawork, but to a meticulously structured narrative that steadily drip-feeds information about the various characters. Strong, intelligent fare.