Music

Angela Schanelec / Germany, France & Serbia / 2023 / 108 min

Since the 90s, German filmmaker Angela Schanelec has developed her own ‘less is more’ poetics, where she removes so much of the narrative from her aesthetically refined feature films that the most prosaic scenes from everyday life achieve a minimalist mystique. With ‘Music’, she has created a high point not only in her own career, but in modern cinema in general. A feature film based on the myth of King Oedipus with a sky-high level of abstraction and imagery that belongs among the most beautiful in any film today. As elliptical and enigmatic as it appears, ‘Music’ miraculously manages to be crystal clear and open. The plot in brief: Jon was abandoned in the Greek mountains as an infant and has never known his mother or father. But when a tragic accident lands him in prison, he meets Iro, a prison guard who takes a curiously maternal interest in him. She records music for Jon, who is slowly losing his sight. But for every loss he experiences, he also wants to gain something. A musical milestone from one of European cinema’s most original names, and one of the most enchanting films of the year.