A piper is hired by a town to lure the rats away. When the townspeople refuse to pay him, he leads their children away as he had the rats.
WE ARE THE TIDE summons up the old dystopian tale in the first few minutes with dramatic imagery of the mud flats and whispered voiceover. The near-future film,
part of a new wave of German genre films, is about the things we take for granted, like summer following winter and high tide following low. Or perhaps our children. Until the tide in the northern German village of Windholm does not come and the children of the village disappear.
Gravitational anomaly, causality, time, generational contracts -- everything is afloat. Also for the two young scientists who come to Windholm while dealing with their own relationship. Eerily, I watch this film the week that scientists for the first time have proved Einstein’s idea of gravitational waves, a case of reality taking over science fiction.
But the
big, bold and beautiful fairy-tale images --keep an eye out for young cinematographer Simon Vu in the future-- and the
sweeping score don't make up for a
plot like Swiss cheese and laboured, wooden dialogue that tries to be mysterious but instead spells it all out. One understands and appreciates what director Sebastian Hilger wanted to do with his Baden Württemberg graduation film, a film about growing up and (not) looking back. It just does not pull its weight and does not come together. But I will say that these points of critique feel like growing pains that can be ironed out. Hilger certainly has a voice (albeit still breaking) and a specific aesthetic. Will I watch his next film? Absolutely.
by
Jutta Brendemühl
