Marija (film)

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Marija
Marija poster.jpg
Film poster
Directed by Michael Koch
Written byMichael Koch
Starring Margarita Breitkreiz
Release date
  • 8 August 2016 (2016-08-08)(Locarno)
Running time
100 minutes
CountriesGermany
Switzerland
LanguageGerman

Marija is a 2016 German-Swiss drama film directed by Michael Koch. It premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland in 2016 [1] and was screened in the Discovery section at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. [2]

Contents

Plot

Marija is a Ukrainian immigrant, who lives in Dortmund's Nordstadt, a migrant problem district. In her bathroom, water drips from the ceiling. She works as a poorly paid chambermaid in a hotel and dreams of having her own hairdressing salon. But that becomes a distant prospect, when she loses her job, because a colleague, also a migrant, blows the whistle on her petty thefts.

Marija doggedly approaches the Turkish landlord Cem, when he ruthlessly storms her flat to collect back rent, that Marija cannot afford. Cem promptly softens up and hires her for occasional help with other tenants for a fee, be it translating at an illegal doctor's appointment or filling out child benefit applications.

As an escort to a party, Marija meets Cem's business associate Georg, who immediately sees through their "paid" relationship. He woos her, who has studied and speaks good German as well as Russian, away from Cem for a delicate negotiation about a lucrative Russian building project. Marija proves to be both charming and hard-nosed, and the plan succeeds. Georg is impressed and increasingly makes private advances to Marija, which in turn touch her, while she coolly rejects Cem's offer of a holiday for two.

Georg, who has a criminal record, supports Marija morally and with money in her dream of owning a hair salon. A little joy and happiness glimmer in her. But after a moonlighting inspection, which Marija barely escapes, Georg ends up in prison again, which is a horror for him. He wants a clean slate. The stashed cash from the Russian construction project is to serve as bail for his release and he is already planning a new existence in Mallorca. Marija's commitment to the worker Igor, husband of Marija's pregnant friend Olga, whom she had arranged for and who has now been deported, is of no concern to him - and apparently neither is Marija's dream. When Olga gives up and Igor follows her back to Ukraine, Marija uses Georg's money to help them and to start the hairdressing salon.

In the end, Georg is released anyway and confronts Marija. She immediately offers him the rest of his money and decides almost without hesitation in favour of her independence with a hairdressing salon and against Georg, who leaves the shop hurt, angry and giving up his money.

Cast

Reception

Critical response

James Lattimer of Cinema Scope Magazine had criticized films' artificial dialogue and its often overemphatic delivery. Bringing examples such as; “If you don’t screw them, they’ll screw you” or “Why don’t you look for a normal job?”, which he claims is a result of bad script. [3]

Accolades

Locarno Film Festival 2016
Angers European First Film Festival 2017
Glasgow Film Festival 2017
Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Film Festival 2017
Mons International Film Festival 2017
Prague International Film Festival 2017
Riviera International Film Festival 2017
Swiss Film Award 2017

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References

  1. ↑ "'Michael Koch's 'Marija' Flies Swiss Flag at Locarno". Variety . 9 September 2016.
  2. ↑ "Marija". TIFF. 9 September 2016. Archived from the original on 1 September 2016. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  3. ↑ "Marija (Michael Koch, Germany/Switzerland) — Discovery". Cinema Scope.
  4. ↑ Goodfellow, Melanie (13 July 2016). "Luxbox acquires Locarno Golden Leopard contender 'Marija'". Screen Daily. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  5. 1 2 Award list 2017 - Premiers Plans In: premiersplans.org. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  6. ↑ Glasgow Film Festival: Marija (N/C 15+) In:glasgowfilm.org. Retrieved 5 February 2022
  7. ↑ MSPIFF FILM ARCHIVE: 2017 - Marija In:mspfilm.org. Retrieved 5 February 2022
  8. 1 2 Swiss Films: Marija In:swissfilms.ch. Retrieved 5 February 2022
  9. ↑ Official Twitter account of Swiss Films In: twitter.com. Retrieved 5 February 2022
  10. ↑ Riviera International Film Festival 2017: The Competition, The Rules / Movies in Competition In: rivierafilm.org. Retrieved 5 February 2022
  11. ↑ SRF: Göttlich geordnet: Die Nominationen für den Schweizer Filmpreis - Solothurner Filmtage In: srf.ch (in German). Retrieved 5 February 2022


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