Was wir wollten

Beautifully and humanly narrated story of two families. One is trying to have a child - in vain. The other, on the contrary, has two children and doesn't know what to do with them. The idea is clear and I think it has a lot to say to many of us. Lavinia Wilson and Elyas M'Barek played the life-tested couple brilliantly. They behaved towards each other terribly nicely, sincerely. Unfortunately, all this niceness hid one secret that gnawed at their conscience deeply and intensely. A very nice piece about Austria. (20/11/2020)

I see more relationship dramas in my work than I would like and none of them affected me this year like the Austrian film Was wir wollten (Netflix). Ulrike Kofler's intelligent and elegantly-filmed debut about how difficult it sometimes is to burn bridges and live with the feeling that something essential is missing. It's not depressing - it has the lightness and ironic edge of Maren Ade's films. Even the sentiment works here, because it is not an escape from problems, but rather an essential part of them. This film is a candidate for my top 10 films of this year. (17/11/2020)