“8 Days in August” is about relationships falling apart
Published: Thursday, May 2nd 2024, 10:50
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Two friendly families are spending time by the sea and all is well. But then the fabric of everyone involved gets mixed up. Swiss director Samuel Perriard knows how to make nuances audible in his new film "8 Days in August".
A remote beach in Apulia, a house in the hills and two friendly families. The sea glistens and, thanks to the great cinematography, the summer couldn't be more beautiful. But a breakdown suffered by teenage son Finn upsets the relationship between parents Helena and Adam and their friendship with the other couple.
Swiss director Samuel Perriard worked as co-director on the historical spy series "Davos 1917" last winter and caused a sensation with his first feature film "Black Panther". In "8 Days in August", he manages to give his characters an almost oppressive sense of loneliness. The quartet of two married couples may appear as a group, but the two women and two men are surrounded by an aura of loneliness.
Father and mother drift apart
The focus is on Finn's parents, who collapse on the way home from the beach and are only fit again the next day. Helena and Adam's relationship begins to falter. Adam, who was already standing paralyzed next to Finn when he fainted on the dusty path, remains paralyzed. The incident slows him down and unsettles him. His wife Helena, on the other hand, develops an activism that is diametrically opposed to Adam's immobility. Inwardly, she distances herself from him.
Helena, played by Julia Jentsch ("Monte Verità"), is the best example of this change in strength. The Berlin actress, who has lived in the Zurich region for several years, embodies the new beginning so skillfully that Florian Lukas ("Weissensee") almost goes under a little as Adam. However, this may also be due to the script. Swiss actress Sarah Hostettler as Ellie and her colleague Sami Loris as Matti complete the strong quartet.
Samuel Perriard is said to have been inspired by an encounter from his youth and initially wanted to make the film as a thriller. Well, he didn't. Apart from the somewhat fantastical sequences on a desert island, the disintegration of seemingly stable relationships within a short space of time is just as exciting. If not more exciting*.
*This text by Nina Kobelt, Keystone-SDA, was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation.
©Keystone/SDA
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