Star Rating:

Stations of the Cross

Director: Dietrich Bruggemann

Actors: Florian Stetter, Franziska Weisz, Lea van Acken, Moritz Knapp

Release Date: Saturday 30th November 2013

Genre(s): Drama

Running time: 107 minutes

A difficult viewing as director Dietrech Bruggemann's ponderous style gives the viewer plenty of time to contemplate the story's likely climax. A swipe not just at Catholicism but religious oppression in general - raising your children this way, the film says, is tantamount to child abuse. It's an easy target, this level of religious fervour and fanaticism, and the sermons can err on the side of ridiculousness, but Stations of the Cross is a stirring and disturbing drama.

Fourteen-year-old Maria (van Acken) has been raised in a conservative offshoot of Catholicism, a fire-and-brimstone Christian warrior joyless brand of the religion. Here, vanity is a sin, Gospel music has devil rhythms, and illness is God's punishment. Taking the latter to heart, Maria approaches Father Weber (Stetter), the priest meticulously preparing her for her upcoming confirmation, about how one could go about sacrificing one's life to please the Lord; her four-year-old brother (Linus Fluhr) has never spoken and she feels if she offers her life up then God may forgive her brother. The elephant in the room is that he's opting not to speak because of the oppressive atmosphere at home and the wrath of his hateful/religious mother (Weisz).

The narrative is divided into the fourteen titular chapters, which are indirectly represented. With Maria the parallel for Jesus here, the ‘falls' of the Jesus Falls The First Time is temptation on Maria's part as she ‘flirts' with a boy (a terrific Knapp); Jesus Meets His Mother has Weisz gives a lift to her troubled daughter, but offers nothing close to the expected comfort in her hour of need. As the film progresses through the stations, as Maria gets thinner and paler, the scenes get shorter and shorter as its terrible conclusion approaches.

With a Michael Haneke tendency for austerity, director Dietrech Bruggemann keeps things as simple as possible, opting for a single shot static camera style (only four times does the camera move). The opening fifteen minute scene sets the tone: Father Weber sits at a table in a Last Supper pose as he preaches the importance of children's confirmation. It's a wonderful performance but it can be distracting, leading the viewer to wonder how many takes did it take to get it right? But the sandbox style ensures there's nowhere to hide: this ugliness of this brand of religion is laid bare.

Weisz and van Acken beautiful complement each other. In a stellar performance, Weisz's stern, hard face wonderfully juxtaposes van Acken's wide-eyed warmth and compassion.