The State I Am In

A German film about a family living underground. Jeanne is fifteen. Her parents were in an armed political group years ago and have lived under false identities ever since. They move from country to country, stay in hotel rooms and tell nobody their real names. On a beach in Portugal Jeanne meets a boy. For the first time something belongs to her own life, and she cannot tell her parents. Their money runs out. The family has to return to Germany and starts looking to old contacts for help. The former comrades have built ordinary lives by now; nobody wants to see them. What the film describes is not politics but a child unable to belong anywhere because of her parents' choice. Jeanne has no school, no friend and no past; all she has is the rules of two adults. The narrative moves calmly and without explanation; the history behind the events is never told. Julia Hummer plays Jeanne, and Barbara Auer and Richy Müller play the parents. Christian Petzold directed; it was his first feature for cinema and it took the best film award in Germany that year. An important starting point for anyone who likes contemporary German cinema and narratives kept at a distance. For a viewer expecting action, the film is almost entirely a state of waiting.