Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: BLISS [Berlinale 2021 - Virtual]
The notion of identity, perception and confidence take a big role in the subtle and yet interestingly complex "Bliss" [Panorama). The film takes place in Berlin circling around the activities of a brothel operating in much the way one would expect the Old West with a certain standard of rules and decorum yet offering a specific service. What is both ironic and telling is that the film has its love interest/2nd protagonist played by Eva Colle who is a known social media personality while also having been a sex worker in certain circles. She has transitioned to an actor but her previous on screen outing was as part of a documentary which explored her observations, poetry and other interweaving elements that both addressed her personality and the alignment with her work. The work here is fiction likely peppered with her experiences. But the banality , mundane elements and normalcy of their works speaks to a difference of reflections concerning stigma in society (perhaps more in the United States than in certain sectors of Europe for example). Suffice to say this environment sets itself more plainly as a backdrop to two people falling in love, one being Colle's Maria and the other, an older prostitute named Sascha (played with a beautifully honed almost broken-mirror delicacy by Katharina Behrens).
Colle herself is credited as Adam Hoya which is even more interesting since that almost points to a non-binary swivel which creates an interesting dynamic of fluidity especially where the idea of sex is concerned. Te gist of the story, even though it shows joy, does reflect a little bit with shame but it is such an individual reaction in that it is not to the situation in so much as the personality it is affecting and what came before. Sascha is struggling internally whether it be with self esteem or questions of existence whereas Maria handles it in a completely different way. The way specifically Hoya (aka Eva) handles a crucial scene back at wok after she and Sascha return to her home in Brandenberg is powerful, confident, direct and yet true. It also shows Hoya's control, physically, emotionally, intellectually in the scene. The ending does veer a little bit towards melodrama but the underlying metaphor of engagement of sorts is interesting. But using the backdrop where the commodity and the service is so personally integrated and intertwined is a novel approach, and it is dynamic to see the separation and connection while respecting the reality, however it plays. B
By Tim Wassberg
