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| Writer/director Angelina Maccarone |
TURNING TABLES (Klandestin) B Germany (124 mi) 2024 d: Angelina Maccarone
Reminiscent of the gripping, multi-layered political thrillers of Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View (1974), Michael Haneke’s Caché (Hidden) (2005), Fatih Akin’s 2017 Top Ten List #9 In the Fade (Aus dem Nichts) or his earlier THE EDGE OF HEAVEN (2007), which stars Fassbinder actress Hanna Schygulla, while this one stars Fassbinder actress Barbara Sukowa, who was Mieze in BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ (1980) and the lead in LOLA (1981), both providing magnificent performances, where this is a different side of Sukowa that we haven’t seen before. The film has that sleek, stylistic flourish of American director Michael Mann that was so prevalent in the 80’s and 90’s, like Thief (1981) or HEAT (1995), chic and sophisticated, with eye-popping visuals and powerfully-lit nighttime scenes. Making her first film in 13 years, Angelina Maccarone started out as a writer of song lyrics for Udo Lindenberg and other artists, graduating from the University of Hamburg before she got her Master’s degree in literature, and has been a film professor at Babelsberg Film University since 2014, winning the German Film Award (Lola) for Best Unfilmed Script in 2017, which provided the blueprint, so this film has been in the works for a while. Coming with great expectations, featuring an international cast centered around four lead characters, skillfully interweaving the same story from four different points of view, the film examines the conflict between personal freedom and political constraints, adding political intrigue with personal conflict. Shot by Florian Foest, who with a few exceptions has worked almost exclusively in television, yet the look of the film is broodingly dark and complex, suggesting truth lies deeply hidden underneath an artificial façade. Opening with a panoramic view of the Frankfurt skyline in the evening, as the lights come on in the skyscrapers, while rush hour traffic snakes its way through the streets, only to be disturbed by the sound of an explosion, as a bomb rocks through the stillness of the night, setting off a chain of reactions, as the entire city is on edge, with the film exploring the effect this has on the various protagonists, moving back and forth in time through non-linear storytelling as it carefully unravels a little bit more about each one of them.
Told in chapter headings devoted to each new character, where only gradually are their secrets revealed, Richard (Lambert Wilson) is a successfully wealthy gay British painter living a bohemian freestyle life in Tangier, where he’s fallen in love with a boyish-looking younger man named Malik (Habib Adda), whose dream is to get to Europe by any means possible, willing to take any risk, which includes being smuggled in Richard’s van as he transports his paintings to Frankfurt for an exhibition. Yet Malik’s presence is a precarious one, as the city is ramping up its security following the suspected terrorist blast and police are everywhere making a slew of arrests, where anyone of Arab descent becomes a suspect, so Richard is adamant about him staying indoors, instructing him to never leave the apartment while he goes out to help arrange the gallery opening. Initially that is not a problem, but things get dicey when Richard has to return to England on business, as Malik grows restless being stuck inside, having no outside contact, so he breaks the rules, thinking nothing will come of it, but the suspense is palpable in his wanderings, as ominous signs are everywhere, yet he’s ridiculously naïve and clueless about the implications. We subsequently learn they are staying in the home of Mathilda (Barbara Sukowa), Richard’s best friend since childhood, who has transformed herself into a cold, hard-nosed, conservative politician who is campaigning on taking a tough stance against illegal immigration, where both men have put her career in jeopardy by harboring the very thing she stands so vociferously against. The tenderness of Richard’s relationship with Mathilda, however, stands out, as they are extremely close, like brother and sister, sharing many things in common, like music and a cynical take on conventional bourgeois attitudes, remaining in each other’s trust and confidence despite their stark political and ideological differences. Adding to the mix is her new assistant, Amina (Banafshe Hourmazdi), described as a “cultural mediator,” who is something of a specialist on new EU immigration laws.
A staunch advocate of stricter EU border controls, Mathilda is a roundly disliked right-wing hardliner who wants to limit migrant populations, whose blatant hypocrisy requires that Malik stay out of sight, suddenly facing a moral dilemma that calls into question her own basic convictions. The film beautifully examines both her public and private side, where we discover she’s nothing at all like the chilly veneer of her public perception, which is strictly a façade projecting strength and power, where viewers are allowed to see a quieter, more reflective humanist side. Certainly part of what’s so effective is how the coolness of the distinct style of film matches her public persona, bathed in a veneer of artificiality and practiced techniques, appearing raw and gritty, yet underneath remains the heart of a woman. While she and Richard are privileged and well-educated, supposedly cut from the same cloth, Amina has more in common with Malik. Though she may have a similar education, equally well-spoken and a consummate professional, dressed conventionally in her business suit, her path to success has been decidedly different, where that side of her mirrors the concealment of Malik, as it remains hidden and out of sight, not for public consumption. This multidimensional aspect of their character is not what we expect, as we rarely see an inner side to these more-often neglected characters, so it adds an element of human intrigue. Coming from an Italian father and a German mother, the director understands more than most about intercultural complexities, exposing the inhumane consequences of xenophobic policies. The entangled forces that Maccarone weaves together are simply fascinating (though the world has changed greatly since it was written, much darker and less hopeful, especially after the outbreak of war in Ukraine and Gaza), concluding with a sequence that brings everything together, as terrorism is a hot topic of the day, as is the political overreaction, cynically taking advantage of people’s anxieties and fears, projecting strength through ideological rhetoric that only stirs up that pot and actually foments more violence, where it’s easy to blame an unseen enemy which has no face. This film, as the title suggests, particularly the German title of “clandestine,” challenges that perception, projecting a human face that is so often associated with the enemy, where they are guilty until proven innocent, as the legal standards in this globalized world are simply not equivalent.
