A subtle and haunting account of the son of aristocrats, an architect, a loving boy-friend, a master manipulator or a lost soul.

We first meet Julius at his job as guard in an art gallery. As he observes the visitors wandering among the art, we can observe him, a young guy, curly-haired, nice looking. He also comes across as nice when he chats with his new colleague Erik during the break and invites him to an outing on a boat together with other friends. It is a trip that has been postponed a few times before. But this time the small group actually arrives close to their destination in the countryside. There is only a bit of a walk to get to the boat. But once more the party is prevented from getting to the boat though this time it is already in sight. Is it perhaps because of Julius himself that this boat, owned by his family (his aristocratic family, mind you!), seems so out of reach?

It is difficult to say more about Jöns Jönnsen’s second feature, which premiered in the Encounters section of the Berlin Film Festival in 2022, without taking away its tension and without spoiling the carefully scripted trajectory of subtly dropped revelations that determine our changing perception of who Julius is or is not - the son of aristocrats, an architect, a loving boy-friend, a master manipulator or a lost soul? Accompanying Julius through a series of precisely crafted scenes that show him in different social constellations, we are never quite certain of how much about Julius is fake or genuine. Early in the film Julius tells the boating party, “What we do and how we are is based on what we believe about ourselves, on the ruling values of the day.” This seems to be the axiom he lives by, being someone else from one moment to the next, seemly trying out the limits, whether by design or impulse, of how changeable a person is allowed be in a society where everyone assumes different roles.

Germany 2022, colour, 112 mins. With English subtitles.

Direction and Script by Jöns jönsson. With Moritz von Treuenfels, Ricarda Seifried, Thomas Schubert, Petra Welteroth, Max Themak, Ines Marie Westernströer, Zejhun Demirov, Felix Tittel, Deniz Orta, Hendrik Kraft.