"I am not that person," says refreshingly earthy actor Birgit Minichmayr (worth another Bear?) in Matthias Glasner's intense drama Mercy, his sixth feature. A "good" person, she fights tooth and nail being defined by one accident, one bad decision. One that could have happened to every one of us, which keeps a stranglehold on the audience and throws basic Who Am I and What Now questions in our faces.Maria's very deed negates her tough job as a hospice nurse and throws everyone around her into turmoil: her "arsehole" husband, who seemingly to his own surprise becomes the moral compass in the dark (a great role for well-known actor Juergen Vogel); their struggling and taciturn teenage son (strangely neglected by both parents in their sorrow and preoccupations); the husband's desperate lover. The setting in the remote, bitter cold but stunningly beautiful Norwegian polar night could have been kitschy but is simply hypnotising and seductive, with beautiful camera shots around the few lights. Up to the glorious final celebration. There is not just guilt, there is hope for mercy.
by Jutta Brendemuehl, Goethe-Institut Toronto
