Der Kuss des Grashüpfers

Bernard, a stoic, middle-aged writer with a sheep for roommate, leads an obsessively structured life in a lavish penthouse overlooking the city of Cologne. When his father Carlos, with whom he shares a knotty relationship, suffers an assault and falls ill, Bernard’s volatile reality grows even more shaky. He is hurled into a series of surreal, enigmatic encounters featuring his drifting girlfriend Agata, a neighbour defying gravity and perhaps time, unconcerned cops, overconcerned functionaries and even a six-foot grasshopper. In his second feature, The Kiss of the Grashopper, Elmar Imanov forges a dark, progressively mysterious odyssey through loss, grief and unexpected compassion. His nakedly psychoanalytical film unfurls like an arcane tapestry, a symbolic minefield overflowing with displaced figures, events and objects whose specific meanings may feel elusive, but whose potency and personal quality are unmistakable. With a rigorous, highly stylized mise en scène, Imanov engineers a visually arresting world governed by dream logic, where the rational casually coexists with the bizarre. The result is a work that never ceases to surprise, confound and provoke thought.