Be My Star

Like Jessica Hausner’s LOVELY RITA, MEIN STERN is another fine slice of realism from Austria, albeit one shot in Berlin. It charts the ups and downs in the relationship between 14-year-old Nicole and Christopher, who is hardly any older for all his faintly ludicrous pretensions to coolness, experience and maturity. Beautifully acted and observed, the film picks up on how tiny things can seem a matter of life or death in teenage relationships; the spotty, awkward daters may look risible to those of us with the advantage of hindsight, but that doesn’t lessen their pain and pleasure. Their dignity and humanity are wisely respected by writer/director Grisebach in her lovely debut, which features one of the finest dance scenes in recent cinema. (Time Out)
“When I began to do the research, it fascinated me how such young people try to be a couple in the same way as adults, and how they instinctively or intuitively play the game. They think it’s so exciting to suddenly be a part of it and throw themselves into the situation with incredible seriousness.” (Valeska Grisebach interviewed by Karin Schiefer)

In the presence of Valeska Grisebach.

ALESKA GRISEBACH, D/A, 2001, 65MIN, OMEU