Gisela

Gisela, a young married mother, is a supermarket cashier. When Georg, a lout she’s known for years, and his pal Paul invite her to a party, she impulsively decides to go along. Soon, without giving it much thought, she’s seeing Paul for regular sessions of enthusiastic and – at least from his perspective – emotionally non-committal sex, which not only sets tongues wagging but inspires jealousy in the sociopathic Georg… Stever’s admirably matter-of-fact account of the development of this decidedly unromantic triangle paints a persuasive portrait of the lives of lower-middle-class twenty- and thirtysomethings in today’s Europe. Without resorting to melodramatic cliché or easy moral judgements, she subtly suggests that her characters are caught in a world circumscribed by feelings of powerlessness, passivity, conformism, frustration and boredom. The naturalistic performances ring as true as the low-key realism informing both the visuals and the narrative, at times lending the film an authenticity and integrity reminiscent of the Fassbinder of ‘Katzelmacher’ and ‘Wild Game’.