Stopped on Track

It's a German film, and it's good - hallelujah! That was pretty much my initial reaction after watching this cancer drama, before the pain set in. For when you've been in the situation the film describes, you'll go through the exact motions you may have felt when taking care of a loved one who dies. Other than just about any other film I've seen on the subject, no sappy music sets in, no brilliant actors use their characters to showcase their abilities. It's just the story of an ordinary worker with a wife and two kids who gets diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor and chronicles his last months with a camcorder.

Director-writer Andreas Dresen is a seasoned TV director and documentary film maker, which defines his visual style. But unlike most German directors, he's making the best out of his possibilities by sticking to a very naturalist mise-en-scène, focusing on creating 'special moments' which drive the story. That allows him to take the spectator's attention away from the actors. It's a style that already worked very well in 'Cloud 9', for which he received the Cannes a special Cannes 'Un Certain Regard' public prize, before winning the award itself with this film. He is, however, essentially a documentary film maker, so his best film so far is most definitely 'Herr Wichmann von der CDU' (2003), which is about a provincial election campaign.

Still, 'Stopped on Track' will probably stay with you longer than most films of the past year, as it's dealing with a reality that concerns everybody, but is usually considered taboo in film. While people die so often violently on screen, it's quite a shock to see someone die from a disease, even if it's just fictitious; so the importance of this film is to make us wonder which is the appropriate way to deal with death, a question to which it gives mature and even beautiful answers.