Stay Still

Julie lives by her own rule: do nothing. And by NOTHING, she means NOTHING: she doesn't study, she doesn't work, she doesn't have any friends. She just wants to stand still. To escape “normal” life, Julie regularly checks herself into her favorite psychiatric clinic. Here, people know her and understand her. No one is surprised that Julie never leaves the house without rubber gloves or that she occasionally kidnaps a llama from the zoo to take to a rave. They leave her alone. That changes abruptly when she learns that her inheritance has been used up and Agnes enters her life: a supposedly naive nurse and her new caregiver, who is always trying to do everything right. Julie quickly realizes that her previous perfect life of doing nothing is on the brink of collapse. She makes a momentous decision: in order to continue standing still, she must start moving. Overwhelmed, resistant, and struggling for self-determination—director Elisa Mishto brings together two dissimilar women, one rebellious, the other dutiful, and has them clash with plenty of surreal situational comedy. The result is an idiosyncratic psychological tragicomedy that rebels against the logic of constant functioning. In addition to the impressive leading actresses, the supporting cast also attracts attention: Katharina Schüttler, Martin Wuttke, and Jürgen Vogel surprise in small but finely nuanced roles.