Hounded
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Hounded ( 2007 ) Starring Kostja Ullmann, Maren Kroymann www.verfolgt-der-film.de movie homepage (IMDB# 0488903) |
Angelina Maccarone's intense drama deals with the obsessive relationship between a confused teenager and an elder woman. Elsa Seifert successfully works as probation officer, but the relationship to her longtime companion is in trouble since their common daughter moved out. Then she gets to know Jan, a 16-years-old offender, who frankly offers to submit himself sexually to her. Although being shocked in the beginning, Elsa gets more and more attracted by the young man...
An MMM Film production. (International sales: Media Luna, Cologne.) Produced by Ulrike Zimmermann. Directed by Angelina Maccarone. Screenplay, Susanne Billig.
With: Maren Kroymann, Kostja Ullmann, Markus Voellenklee, Moritz Grove, Ada Labahn, Stephanie Charlotta Koetz.
A 50-year-old social worker abandons herself to an S&M affair with her teenage charge in "Hounded," a small but single-minded drama that sticks to the ribs. First pic by German helmer Angelina Maccarone ("Everything Will Be Fine," "Unveiled") that is from another's script and contains no lesbian angle, "Hounded" has an attractively perverse take on sexual desire that's boosted by resonant B&W lensing and Maren Kroymann's no-nonsense perf as the transgressive mom. Though a tough sell in the commercial arena, pic deserved better than being tucked away in Locarno's secondary competition, and could gain a useful critical rep with more fest exposure. Sporting no apparent make-up, cabaret singer/comedienne Kroymann is aces as Elsa Seifert, an attractive, middle-aged Hamburger with a career as a social worker and an OK family life. Her grown daughter has just moved out, and her husband, Raimar (Markus Voellenklee), is an easygoing type with whom she shares an open, understanding relationship. (He confesses to a one-night stand; she pretty much shrugs it off.)
Life for the very grounded Elsa starts to change almost immediately after she is assigned the case of Jan Winkler (Kostja Ullmann), a 16-year-old delinquent just out of stir. Restless and unmanageable, he starts hanging round her home and even -- in an episode that, like several in the pic, plays out in an unexpected way -- buys her a present.
To keep Jan occupied, Elsa arranges for him to work as an intern at Raimar's garage; but Raimar takes a liking to the kid, and even invites him over for dinner. That night, knowing Jan is loitering outside their apartment, Elsa deliberately opens their bedroom window when she and Raimar make love.
It's the start of a weird relationship in which Jan's masochistic desires feed something within the older woman.
With its gritty, chiaroscuro photography, and low-budget feel, film is very different from Maccarone's more conventionally shot "Unveiled," about an Iranian lesbian. There's a tight, focused, forward momentum to "Hounded," with no backstory or psycho-babble, that leaves little time for the viewer to question it in "realistic" terms.
The perfs are the thing here, and Kroymann's in particular is part and parcel of pic's bottom-line approach. Auds wanting neat explanations may be put off by the lack of them -- such as exactly what Elsa gets out of the relationship -- but those willing to go with the flow will be rewarded by an original experience.
Actual S&M material is very mild, and not really the point of the movie. Choice to shoot in B&W seems absolutely right, both visually (in Bernd Meiner's contrasty lensing) and dramatically.
Camera (B&W), Bernd Meiners; editor, Bettina Boehler; music, Jakob Hansonis, Hartmut Ewert; art director, Bernard A. Homann; sound (Dolby Digital), Dirk Homann; assistant director, Tina Dupuy. Reviewed at Locarno Film Festival (Filmmakers of the Present, competing), Aug. 5, 2006.
Running time: 89 MIN.
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