Cool design: “La ligne” from Switzerland in the competition

In her dark drama “La ligne”, Ursula Meier literally places a circle around a family that is breaking up. A border crossing.

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This movie is like a slap in the face. Right at the beginning, records, CDs and sheets of music suddenly fly against the wall, the hand of the enraged Margaret (Stéphanie Blanchoud) lands violently on the cheek of her mother Christina (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi), whose head effectively bangs on the piano. Everything in slow motion, accompanied by Bach, later Schubert, Beethoven.

Deep wounds on the body

Yes, the art hurts in this film, and it’s to blame for the fact that a family is breaking up in idyllic Valais, where the cold doesn’t just settle on the dirty snow on the ground. Here Margarete’s twelve-year-old sister Marion (impressive: Elli Spagnolo) will soon paint a circle around the house with light blue paint, with a diameter of 100 meters, because that is the distance Margaret can no longer keep up with after her freak out on the orders of a judge from her mother may approach.

For three months, but that doesn’t stop her from giving her little sister singing lessons – right on the blue line, on the inhospitable road with its rattling trucks. Because Marion should not squander her musical talent, like Margaret herself and Mama Christina, who had to give up her career as a pianist after Margaret was born – which left deep wounds.

Behind the pane of glass in the living room and on the body of Margaret, who torments herself through this film, always marked with scars, blood and scratches, and seeks closeness to the family whose souls she has destroyed.

A few absurd moments

In “La ligne”, director Ursula Meier coolly constructs the proverbial boundaries within which, yes, a family circle develops. Outbursts of violence alternate with touching scenes; Great drama, played with great physicality by the strong Stéphanie Blanchoud, with sudden comedy when Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, who here always tends towards drama, allows her completely overwhelmed mother character a few absurd moments.

This makes for some great acting moments, but the film is too cerebral with its well-defined dramaturgy, its attempted reflection of the soul landscape in an uncomfortable winter landscape and its love of unusual images to be able to touch you in any way. The slap in the face doesn’t work.

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