SWANS

Germany, 2011, 120 minutes, Colour.
Kai Hillebrand, Ralph Herforth, Maria Schuster, Vasupol Siriviriyapoon.
Directed by Hugo Vieira da Silva.

No ‘hereafter’ or ‘afterwards’ in this story of cancer, coma, dying... It is an earthbound film with a strong focus on the body of the dying woman. It is a ‘somatic’ drama, according to the co-director.

A man and his son, living in Portugal, travel to a wintry and bleak Berlin to visit Petra, the man’s former partner and mother of his eighteen year old son, Manoel, whom she abandoned when he was three.

The style of the film (minus musical score except for some records playing and a band) is long takes, long close-ups, attentive to minute detail that reflects life but will agitate a restless audience. We see the care nurses and doctors give the woman, medical care, massage and washing. The man is more reserved, tense but devoted, upset at the seeming indifference of his son. The boy is off-handed, visiting, keeping away but gradually curious about the woman and her body which bore him.

He seems introverted but hardly introspective. He is one of those alienated, self-absorbed young men, a top skateboarder (which occupies his time), likes rap music, indulges in graffiti and LP records.

The other character is Petra’s Asian room-mate, a silent figure. While the father has some therapy for his tensions, Manoel rummages, becomes more sexually aware, realises vaguely that he ought to relate or bond with his mother.

And, as expected, the just stops rather than ends.

1. The title of the film? The director leaving it to the audience? Swans singing before they die – or not?

2. The Berlin setting, cold in winter? The hospital, the apartment? The streets? The street box shop? The skateboarding centre? A limited world? The graffiti? The lack of a musical score – songs inserted at various times?

3. The tone of the film, the long takes, the close-ups, the attention to minute detail? The slow effect on the audience, building up a sense of place, of people?

4. The focus on Petra, her serious illness? The focus on her body, the nurses washing it, the medical man and his needles? The father and his reverent attention, memories of the past? Hesitation in touching? The desire to put her out of her suffering, smothering? The son, his alienation, not knowing his mother, the curiosity, the fascination, the touch, observe, embrace? Kim and her attention to her friend? Eastern techniques?

5. The journey of father and son to Berlin, the detailed attention to the airport, to the driving, to the hospital, to the apartment? The father and his memories of the past, girlfriend, leaving, taking his son? His son not being with his mother? The character of the father, his age, selling cars, not communicating with his son, the television-watching, his asking about rap music? His dismay at his son’s lack of interest? His own physical tensions, the doctor with the needles, his own therapy for relaxation? The encounters with Kim? His disgust with his son, attacking him? The graffiti, going to the police, the police discussion about sons? His future?

6. The son, eighteen, indifferent, self-absorbed, introspective or introverted? His age and knowing his mother only to three? Her absence? His flat in Lisbon? His going to see his mother, seeming lack of interest, his return, curiosity, touching her, memories of the past, trying to bond with her? The intrusions? His father’s attack?

7. His not going to the hospital, his skateboarding and his expertise, at the centre? His going to the shop, the vinyl records, listening to the band, the drugs? The graffiti episode? The details in the apartment, watching the rap MTV, his indifference to his father, his father’s gift of the car and his rejecting it? In his room, the sexual fetishes of the clothes, his sexual activity? As a character, as trying to move to adulthood, his seeming inability?

8. Petra, her past, with Kim? In the hospital, intensive care, the gowns, the doctors and their concern, her weakness, the needles, her being turned? As an object, her body? About to die? As a person and the attitudes of the various visitors? The end – did she die?

9. Kim, from Asia, sharing the room, silent, clothes, the bath? The visit to Petra and the Asian techniques? The breakfast with the father? The encounters with the son, his coming into the toilet while she was in the bath? Enigmatic?

10. The nursing staff and their care, the doctors and their concern and their opinions?

11. The young people, the group, the music, drugs, the graffiti, the police?

12. A slice of life – for observation rather than empathy?