Unter dir die Stadt by Christoph Hochhäusler

“Can I get a smile?” asks the photographer during a shoot with the grey-suited, stiff-faced ‘Banker of the Year’. The only smile we get is, however, in a group photo of a few employees. Unter dir die Stadt (The City Below) is the third feature by German director Christoph Hochhäusler, competing in the Un Certain Regard section.

In this shiny cold habitat where a tie is part of the uniform, Svenja is a drop of colour. After moving to Frankfurt for her husband’s new job in a major bank, she doesn’t even try to fit into his corporate-artsy social circle. A random encounter and a duel of glances later: the manager, Roland, becomes attracted to her. Her ‘no’ is no permanent decision as Olli, her loving but conformist husband, gets transferred into oblivion; in the Indonesian branch about to be closed, he is both in danger and out of the picture.

For Roland, it’s obvious how a taste of young flesh can eclipse rational business, but what makes a young, playful woman like Svenja fall into the arms of a dull old man whose best line is: “I want to sleep with you”? His power works hand in hand with her loneliness and boredom. However, this is neither’s story. Strategic games in the corporate world delve into globalisation, as the love-affair drama mixes with a subplot. Unter dir die Stadt is not what it seems, with its intricate perspectives, but in the end we’re actually not so sure of what we are looking at.

By Andreea Dobre