Georg Friedrich and Sandra Hüller in Above Us Only Sky
I was fortunate enough to see Above Us Only Sky (Über uns das All), the impressive debut feature of German writer-director Jan Schomburg, at this month's Canberra International Film Festival.
In my review for the SBS Film website, I observed that "those lucky enough to have seen Sandra Hüller's Berlin best actress-winning role as a deeply disturbed German school student in Hans-Christian Schmid's Requiem will already know she is a remarkable talent. For a while other German filmmakers seemed oddly reluctant to cast her in another juicy role, or perhaps she rejected any that came her way.
"But there's no question this drama by German writer-director Jan Schonburg is worthy of her and will help to propel her to further appreciation and acclaim. Her challenging lead role here as Martha, a happily married schoolteacher who goes off the rails when two police officers arrive ominously on her doorstep, could never work with less than a subtly virtuoso performance, and Hüller more than rises to the occasion....
