Come Closer
Der Siebzehnte
Director: Saskia Walker & Ralf Walker
Country: Germany
World Premiere
2020 | 75 min. | German
FSK 18
Cast_ Saskia Walker, Devid Striesow, Ralf Walker Co-Regie/co-directed by_ Sebastian Fremder Screenplay_ Ralf Walker Camera_ Sebastian Fremder Producer_ Saskia Walker Rights_ déjà vu film
Free love in a free film, filled with curiosity – about other people, about physicality and about a film in which Devid Striesow is more approachable than he’s been in a long time.
Anarchic cinema has a long tradition in Germany, from Lubitsch to Achternbusch, from Fassbinder to Schlingensief. Saskia and Ralf Walker do their own thing. Their feature film loves improvisation and trusts the power of the moment to capture physical relations on film. And it’s thoroughly physical, given that the focus is on a relationship between the directing duo and David (Striesow), with whom they end up in bed one after the other. It’s an open-hearted game played with their love, fascinating to watch, and at the same time truthful, questioning everything. Films are almost never made like Come Closer– the results weren’t known beforehand. With rare clarity, these encounters describe how our society is structured: through power relations, through attraction and repulsion, through prejudice and curiosity.