The Party

A film by Sally Potter. In eng­lish with ger­man subtitles.

Janet has just been appoin­ted minis­ter in the shadow cabi­net – the crow­ning achie­ve­ment of her poli­ti­cal care­er. She and her hus­band Bill plan to cele­bra­te this with a few clo­se fri­ends. The guests arri­ve at their home in London but the par­ty takes an unex­pec­ted turn for the worse when Bill sud­den­ly makes two explo­si­ve reve­la­ti­ons that shock Janet and ever­yo­ne pre­sent to the core. Love, fri­end­ships, poli­ti­cal con­vic­tions and a who­le way of life are now cal­led into ques­ti­on. Underneath their cul­ti­va­ted libe­ral left-wing sur­face peo­p­le are seething. Their dis­pu­te leads to the big guns being brought out – even in a lite­ral sense.
For her eighth thea­tri­cal fea­ture British direc­tor and screen­wri­ter Sally Potter, who last took part in the Berlinale Competition with Rage in 2009, has invi­ted a stel­lar cast to join her par­ty. Beginning as a subt­ly wit­ty come­dy rep­le­te with sharp-ton­gued dia­lo­gue, the film later veers off into tra­ge­dy. When life can no lon­ger be con­trol­led by reason, peo­p­le will fight tooth and nail to pro­tect their see­mingly sta­ble existence.

Großbritannien 2017, 71 Min., engl. OmU
Regie, Buch: Sally Potter
Kamera: Alexey Rodionov
Schnitt: Anders Refn, Emilie Orsini

mit:
Patricia Clarkson (April)
Bruno Ganz (Gottfried)
Cherry Jones (Martha)
Emily Mortimer (Jinny)
Cillian Murphy (Tom)
Kristin Scott Thomas (Janet)
Timothy Spall (Bill)