Eklipse

From Viennale

Talking isn’t very popular in the Austrian mountains. The words: harsh. Their message: reproachful. EKLIPSE skilfully applies this concept to its dialogue. It’s 1999 and Chris and Tomy, two boys on the verge of puberty, are spending their summer at an alpine hut. They are best friends. The cows, hay and local dairy are taken care of by Tomy’s uncle, with much of the film’s slow, gentle focus given over to routines, such as cleaning out the stables of cow dung. But there’s a looming absence here: Tomy’s father, who has allegedly been hospitalised for pneumonia. Tomy longs to see him, but is not allowed to visit. His mother tells him, “not now;” she tells his uncle, “he’s still a child.” But then Chris finds out that Tomy’s father is actually in hospital to be treated for AIDS. The community only refers to his condition in derogatory fashion. Tomy has no idea why Chris subsequently rejects him, why he prays maniacally or why he now wants to leave. Tomy seems lost in the dark, but refuses to stay there. Director Manuel Wetscher uses the 1999 solar eclipse as a metaphor for the instinct of children to look straight at the light when they are being misled. His debut film pays tribute to the father he lost to AIDS in the 1990s. (Anna Katharina Laggner)