LE MUR INVISIBLE

A weary woman sits at her desk in a hunting lodge writing a report, unsure of the day or date. She has been trapped in the mountains for an unknown period of time by a mysterious transparent wall that appeared overnight long ago. With her beloved dog Lynx, she survives solitude and deprival. She hunts, harvests, fights depression and anxiety. She experiences moments of happiness, but also pure horror in an Alpine meadow. Eventually she disengages from her past, and no longer thinks about rescue or the wall. Her life is determined by the nature around her and the passage of seasons. At times she lets herself be absorbed into the forest, at others she struggles to stay whole through her love for animals and writing. A rich but cynical reflection emerges on the nature of existence. At the film’s end, she writes to stay alive, yet soon there will be no more paper. She identifies with an albino crow, shunned by its peers. Yet we never lose faith in her creative resilience amidst the pervasive sorrow of isolation.

The Wall is a tale of existential extremity told with lucid eloquence in voice over by an actress in a state of grace, Marina Gedeck (The Lives of Others). Rarely has life in nature, or love between dog and human been portrayed with such intensity on screen. The Wall marks Julian Roman Pölsler first feature film for cinema. His previous work in television includes Anna and the Prince in 2009 and Bella Block in 2007.