‘I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming’ Review: An Affecting Trans Relationship Drama Brings Fresh Perspective to the War in Ukraine
German director Isabelle Stever brings sensitivity and visual ingenuity to this story of a young queer couple whose life together is upended by the Russian invasion. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has prompted a wealth of urgent nonfiction filmmaking documenting the harsh realities of life under siege, but comparatively little dramatic storytelling — a space that the new German-Ukrainian production “I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming” occupies with bold formal imagination and a commitment to illuminating lives neglected in wider views of the conflict.
Reported by 1 outlet — Variety. See all sources ↓
German director Isabelle Stever brings sensitivity and visual ingenuity to this story of a young queer couple whose life together is upended by the Russian invasion. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has prompted a wealth of urgent nonfiction filmmaking documenting the harsh realities of life under siege, but comparatively little dramatic storytelling — a space that the new German-Ukrainian production “I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming” occupies with bold formal imagination and a commitment to illuminating lives neglected in wider views of the conflict. A timely collaboration between German director Isabelle Stever and her wife, Ukrainian screenwriter Anna Melikova, the film is an intimate, bracingly intersectional relationship drama centered on a queer Kyiv couple whose attempts to flee to safety are complicated by local prejudice: a reminder that selective discrimination can still endure within a collectively persecuted population. Premiering in the main competition at Locarno, this is a warmer, more humane work than Stever’s last film, the coolly provocative 2022 incest drama “Grand Jeté.” If that film could travel, even securing U.S.
Read the full report at Variety ↗
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- What's the story?
- German director Isabelle Stever brings sensitivity and visual ingenuity to this story of a young queer couple whose life together is upended by the Russian invasion. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has prompted a wealth of urgent nonfiction filmmaking documenting the harsh realities of life under siege, but comparatively little dramatic storytelling — a space that the new German-Ukrainian production “I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming” occupies with bold formal imagination and a commitment to illuminating lives neglected in wider views of the conflict.
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- 1 outlet, average source rating 6.0/10.
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- just now ago.
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‘I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming’ Review: An Affecting Trans Relationship Drama Brings Fresh Perspective to the War in Ukraine
Sources1TypeCoverageVariety