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Hemel (Polak, 2012) - #Berlinale 2012

A young woman tries to experience love by going through an endless string of relationships while trying to keep her father's affections.

The film has a chapter structure - something I really like, especially memorable in "Brownian Movement" last year. I did lose the over-arching character of the chapters here and wasn't quite sure what they are standing for. There were some really interesting scenes in the film, my favorites are the "shaving scene", the final scene and some inbetween. The energy in the audience during this particular screening was rather impatient with the film, and there were audible sighs when the film stretched on too long and another chapter title came up. Others told me about very positive reactions of the audience.

Although I enjoyed Hannah Hoekstra's performance very much, I couldn't connect to her "thinking" moments - and there are many. Those started to feel more like a music video at points. Tendency in new films to underline reflective moments with too much music, I should avoid this trap at all costs!

Great cinematography with the love scene and the lights wrapped around the body.

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