A couple with a terrorist past have been living on the run for the past 20 years. They share a 15 year old daughter, Jeanne, who has never had the privileged of a normal childhood. While living in Portugal, their money is stolen, forcing them to return to their native Germany. Unable to trust nearly anyone while constantly having to look over the shoulder at every turn, young Jeanne begins to buckle under the pressure of not being able to live a normal life. Christian Petzold's The State I Am In is an impressive character study of a young woman trapped in her surroundings. The thriller and mystery narrative of the film is compelling and engaging in its own right but where the film really excels is its dissection of Jeanne. Jeanne has been living a life on the run with her parents and Petzold focuses the story on how it has shaped Jeanne's development as a young woman. Petzold captures the youthful rebellion that Jeanne presents but it's only a piece of the true harm that her parents lifestyle has had. She is an adolescent who has never had the privilege of having a natural teenage development period, never capable of effectively discovering love, sex, and companionship due to her being constantly uprooted by her parents. It's not that the parents are cold individuals but fully occupied with staying ahead of the authorities. This frantic lifestyle blinds them almost completely from the fact that their daughter is not getting what she needs as a young teenager - love, affection, and some sort of consistency. Jeanne lives in a very isolated state with The State I Am In showing how the past transgressons of the parents slowly dissolves the family cell. The State I Am In is an effective film with many layers, further establishing that Christian Petzold is one of the more interesting contemporary filmmakers.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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