The Space Between the Lines

Emmi writes an email to cancel a magazine subscription. There is a typing error in the address and the message lands in the inbox of a linguist called Leo Leike. When Emmi repeats the mistake, Leo tells her. So begins a correspondence that will run for years. The two never see each other, never hear each other's voice, and for exactly that reason write each other things they could say nowhere else. Emmi is married. Vanessa Jopp's film adapts Daniel Glattauer's novel Gut gegen Nordwind. The difficulty is obvious: the book consists entirely of emails. The film solves it with interior voice and with each character imagined by the other. Nora Tschirner plays Emmi and Alexander Fehling plays Leo. The real subject of the narrative is not love but how attractive the distance itself is. Who it's for: Viewers who like German romantic drama, novel adaptations, and relationships built on correspondence. Who it's not for: The visual solution is forced in places and the pace is low. Readers of the book will also find the tension of the text missing.