Film Archive

Le Prince

Crystal Globe Competition 2021 / Le Prince / Germany 2021

Perhaps they should never have met, but fate wanted otherwise. Monika and Joseph. She is a curator, he is an immigrant from Congo, a businessman with an unclear past and present. They meet during a police raid at a bar, when the first of many sparks flies between them. An understated love story, a melodrama without pathos, a fragile tale about the ambiguous nature of love and the impossibility of overcoming it through reason.

Synopsis

Perhaps they should never have met, but fate wanted otherwise. Their lives intersect while they are hiding in the rear room of a bar during a police raid, when the first of many sparks flies between them. Monika and Joseph. She works as a curator at a gallery, he is a businessman originally from Congo. Their worlds could not be more different. Monika’s friends are intellectuals, while Joseph lives among a vibrant community of often illegal African immigrants. Can their relationship last? Their friends don’t think so, and it seems that even the lovers themselves are sometimes fumbling in the dark. An understated love story, a melodrama without pathos, a fragile tale about the ambiguous nature of love and the impossibility of overcoming it through reason.

Anna Kořínek

About the film

125 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Lisa Bierwirth / Screenplay Hannes Held, Lisa Bierwirth / Dir. of Photography Jenny Lou Ziegel / Editor Bettina Böhler / Art Director Marie-Luise Balzer / Producer Jonas Dornbach, Janine Jackowski, Maren Ade / Production Komplizen Film GmbH / Cast Ursula Strauss, Passi Balende / Contact Komplizen Film GmbH

About the director

Lisa Bierwirth (1983, Hessisch Lichtenau, Germany). Selected filmography: Fracht (2009, TV film, short), Sweetness (2011, TV film, short), Teufel (2013, short), Portopalo (2015, short doc.), Le Prince (2021).