Gleißendes Glück (2016)

The film tells the story of a middle-aged woman who lives in an unhappy marriage and doubts her Christian faith. She seeks out a professor who writes and lectures about happiness. After a while, his pornography addiction comes to light. The two grow increasingly close over the course of the film and try together to address the questions and problems troubling them and find their way to each other. The woman repeatedly returns to her marriage, where, however, no happier path forward seems possible. Her husband becomes violent. Verena Lueken of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung praises the intensity of the two lead performers, but says that their relationship is “not really convincing in the film.” The director, she says, does not dare to translate the language of the book appropriately, and remains in a state of “indeterminacy” and “indecision.” Claudia Lenssen of Der Tagesspiegel says the film remains laconic and concise, and emphasizes “the dreamlike and nightmarish character of the inner worlds.” She calls it a tragicomic treatise, but says its “virtuosity leaves questions unanswered.” Anke Westphal of the Frankfurter Rundschau, by contrast, considers the film “incredibly sexy” and describes images “full of gentle empathy for the characters, who are nevertheless never intruded upon.” The film won the Film & Literature Award at the Film by the Sea festival in Vlissingen and was nominated for the Crystal Globe in the Best Film category at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Martina Gedeck also receives the “2017 Acting Award” on August 31, 2017, at the 13th German Film Festival in Ludwigshafen. The German Film and Media Review FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating “Especially Worthy.”