Sechswochenamt

A film by Jacqueline Jansen. Starts June 18th at the fsk. In German, English and Dutsch with German subtiles

[Credits] [Tickets & Termine] [Trailer]

The film opens with death, por­tray­ed with com­ple­te calm and wit­hout sen­ti­men­ta­li­ty. Then the grie­ving pro­cess beg­ins, depic­ted with sen­si­ti­vi­ty, not wit­hout moments of appa­rent call­ous­ness, which are not, howe­ver, taken amiss, but rather – like ever­y­thing else, in fact – told with infi­ni­te ten­der­ness. The over­whel­ming sen­se of being over­whel­med, the loneli­ne­ss, the unre­asonable demands: “This exis­ten­ti­al fee­ling of being aban­do­ned by the world and lost in it, of being cut off” (Joachim Kurz) This uni­que film also deals with this – on its meta-level, so to speak.
Lore accom­pa­nies her mother as she dies. She returns to the small town of her child­hood, Erkelenz, whe­re many acquain­tances and rela­ti­ves still live who speak the Rhineland dialect. Dealing with death and the grie­ving pro­cess are the film’s cen­tral the­mes. Yet it is the way the sto­ry is told that makes this film tru­ly out­stan­ding. Naturally, melan­cho­ly sets the tone, but any poten­ti­al for sen­ti­men­ta­li­ty is com­ple­te­ly under­mi­ned by the neo­rea­list nar­ra­ti­ve style, to which the endea­ring per­for­man­ces of the many ama­teur actors also con­tri­bu­te.
Alongside this, and in a com­ple­te­ly unob­tru­si­ve man­ner, the sto­ry is set during the pan­de­mic. Embedded within the nar­ra­ti­ve, it forms a kind of back­ground noi­se, fur­ther rein­for­cing the sen­se of loneli­ne­ss and aban­don­ment and thus reflec­ting the gene­ral sta­te of socie­ty.
P.S. According to the Catholic Church, a ‘six-week mass’ is a ser­vice cele­bra­ted six weeks after a death, mar­king the end of the first pha­se of mour­ning for the bereaved.

Credits:

DE 2025, 98 Min., Originalfassung in Deutsch, rhei­ni­sche Mundart, teil­wei­se mit deut­schen Untertiteln
Regie:  Jacqueline Jansen
Kamera:Markus Ott
Schnitt: Simon Dopslaf, Jacqueline Jansen
mit Magdalena Laubisch, Gerta Gormanns, Lola Klamroth, Olga Prokot, Suzanne Ziellenbach, Marc Fischer,

Trailer:

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