Variety Critics’ Choice 2015 / Above and Below / Switzerland, Germany 2015
A not-quite-documentary probing the damaged psyches of five characters floating on the margins of American society, whom the director filmed in their frequently shocking environments over a number of years. Unconcerned with sensationalism, the film presents a focused study that reveals its creator’s deft hand at social anthropology.
A mesmerizing plunge into the damaged psyches of five characters floating on the margins of American society, from a couple scraping by in a Las Vegas drainage tunnel to the young woman determined to be among the first crew to colonize Mars, this remarkable graduation film serves as a perfect companion piece to the wave of post-apocalyptic stories flooding television and megaplexes. The latest (and best) in an unlikely subgenre of not-quite-documentaries to spring up around the desolate expanse beyond California’s Inland Empire, Above and Below delves into a patch of the American frontier that appears even less inhabitable now than it did in the time of John Ford classics. These dried-up lakes and sun-scorched vistas offer fertile soil for the artistic-minded, in this case concentrating on five individuals who simply don’t fit into the modern world as we know it.
Peter Debruge
124 min / Color, DCP
Director Nicolas Steiner
/ Screenplay Nicolas Steiner
/ Dir. of Photography Markus Nestroy
/ Music John Gürtler, Jan Miserre, Lars Voges
/ Editor Kaya Inan
/ Producer Brigitte Hofer, Cornelia Seitler, Helge Albers
/ Production Maximage
/ Coproduction Flying Moon
/ Cast Edward Cardenas, Cynthia Goodwin, Richard F. Ethredge
/ Sales Maximage
www: www.aboveandbelowfilm.com
Nicolas Steiner (b. 1984, Sion, Switzerland) attended the European Film College in Denmark in 2005-2006 before studying ethnology, film studies, and political science at the University of Zurich. He then studied direction at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg. As a teenager he accepted a number of roles in Swiss movies. As a director he made the comedy short It’s Me. Helmut (Ich bin’s. Helmut, 2009), the short animated film Eiskarl (2014), and the feature-length documentary Battle of the Queens (Kampf der Königinnen, 2011), the latter of which captures the atmosphere of an annual Swiss celebration focusing on “raging cows” at a giant outdoor arena. The quasi-documentary Above and Below, which Steiner shot over several years in the US, competed at this year’s festival in Rotterdam.
Maximage
Naugasse 6, CH-8005, Zurich
Switzerland
E-mail: [email protected]
Nicolas Steiner
Catherine Ann Berger
Film Institution Rep.
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