Berlinale: Berlinale: Those who do not surrender

The so-called Generation Z, i.e. people around 20, are often accused by their older, revolution-experienced contemporaries of being too apolitical, of not getting anything done and of having given in to the neoliberal zeitgeist. Nothing could be more wrong, as the French director Claire Burger states in her competition entry “Langue Étrangère”.

In her film about two young people who meet as part of a German-French student exchange, she creates a picture of a youth that is primarily at a loss in the face of immense pressure from all sides. Now the needs of adolescents are an ancient topic in art, but in contrast to the past, today there is a feeling that society as a whole is facing a turning point, with humanity’s self-extinction looming on the horizon – yes, the pathos is justified – has taken on existential dimensions. Given the magnitude of the task, where should one begin, and how should someone with their life ahead of them handle it?

17-year-old Fanny (Lilith Grasmug) from Strasbourg in Alsace meets her pen friend Lena (Josefa Heinsius), who is the same age, in Leipzig to spend a month on exchange. Contrary to the above diagnosis, the latter is definitely politically active and dreams of becoming an activist. Fanny, on the other hand, has completely different concerns: she is shy, lonely and is bullied at school. Contrary to their expectations, they become close friends and support each other, because there is a lot of tension in both families. Lena’s mother (Nina Hoss) is much more the one who doesn’t get anything done than her daughter, she tends to drink and is a total failure as a support or even role model.

Burger precisely dissects Lena’s dysfunctional family, under whose surface things are simmering. The children, who will soon be adults, have long since lived in their own world, which has only a few points of contact with that of their parents. Sensitive, with a great sense of tone and narratively mature, Claire Burger creates a generational portrait and describes how the supposed passivity of today’s young people is more the result of excessive demands and fear. Fear of the future, fear of climate change, the shift to the right in society, the current and future wars, fear of decline – these multiple crises lead to a feeling of fragility and insecurity, which some counter with diligent activism, others with passivity.

The parents are clearly no longer of any help; on the contrary, they are more likely to be part of the problem. How should the next generation deal with the fact that adults simply refuse to acknowledge the reality of the tipping points and simply carry on as before? What is actually astonishing is that this feeling of powerlessness only simmers in secret and is only released in tired activism by small groups like the Last Generation.

Burger achieves the feat of allowing all of these topics and the big politics behind them to be experienced sensually without turning them into a political film. “Langue Étrangère” is by no means a dry educational piece, but rather living cinema. Nevertheless, it has a lot to do with the present, whose major themes form the subtext that runs through the plot. First and foremost, “Langue Étrangère” is a love film, because Fanny and Lena feel more and more attracted to each other. In order to impress the superior-looking Lena, the rather withdrawn Fanny partially reinvents her biography, but begins to become more and more entangled in her lies.

At the end of Lena’s return visit to Strasbourg, both of them will have learned a lot about themselves and have gained maturity, no more, but also no less.

At this point, it is important to highlight the performance of the two main actresses, who develop a chemistry in the game that transfers the tingle between them directly to the screen. It’s hard to believe that the role of Lena was actually Josefa Heinsius’ first film experience, so cleverly and maturely does she play the girl between youthful desire and fear of the future.

Burger’s sensitive direction and clever narrative rhythm make »Langue Étrangère« more than a conventional coming-of-age film; No wonder the festival management invited him to the competition instead of presenting him in the Generation section. Nevertheless, it is to be hoped that the film will also be seen by many young people.

»Langue Étrangère«, France/Germany/Belgium 2024. Director: Claire Burger. With Lilith Grasmug, Josefa Heinsius, Nina Hoss, Chiara Mastroianni. 105 min. Dates: February 23rd, 9.30 p.m., Cineplex Titania; February 25, 9:45 a.m., Verti Music Hall.