Passing Summer

Angela Schanelec's 2001 German film follows Valerie through a summer in Berlin. She sees friends, visits her family and deals with the end of a relationship. The film produces no events. Transitions between scenes are not explained and the moments that seem important stay outside the frame; the narrative does this deliberately and withholds information from the viewer. Schanelec belongs to a generation known in German cinema for formal plainness. The camera is fixed, the takes long and the playing flat; the dialogue is everyday and there is no emotional emphasis. Who it's for: those who like slow European cinema and formalist narrative. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a story that ties together; the film carries no line to a conclusion.