Four Minutes

Traude is eighty and has taught piano in the same prison for sixty years. She works as a volunteer and answers to nobody. A new prisoner arrives: Jenny is young, angry and serving for murder. It comes out that she can play, and Traude begins working with her. Jenny will not accept the rules; she rejects the classical repertoire, wants to play what she plays, and causes an incident at every lesson. Traude insists. There is a competition, and permission is needed for Jenny to appear. Chris Kraus writes and directs. Monica Bleibtreu plays Traude and Hannah Herzsprung plays Jenny. It is a German production. The film won awards in Germany and both actors were cited for their performances. The relationship the narrative builds is not teacher and student; each wants something from the other and neither is well meaning. Traude's past is the second strand; something that happened to her during the war opens as the film proceeds. The order of the prison is shown in detail and the institution works as one side of the narrative. Its final scene carries the whole weight of the narrative and lasts four minutes. Its limit is register; some sections are overdone and the supporting parts thinly written. Who it is for: viewers who like German drama and narratives grounded in music. Who it is not for: the subject is heavy, the characters hard, and some scenes uncomfortable.