\u00bbI was afraid of disturbing her while she was walking. I always lit a new candle because I thought that if it went out, Mum would be gone too. When Mum died, the candle just kept burning.\u00ab Jacqueline Jansen<\/p>\n
One final breath, then her mother is gone \u2013 far too soon. Time stands still, marking the beginning of this autofictional feature debut. Gradually, 25-year-old Lore grasps everything she must face in the wake of the unimaginable. According to Catholic tradition, the six-week mass marks the end of the first mourning period. Until then, back in her hometown of Erkelenz, Lore doggedly works her way through all the practicalities \u2013 bureaucracy, family, neighbours, her apartment, the grief. Outside, COVID is locking down the world, and a fog of uncertainty and self-absorption hangs over the small town. Against this backdrop, the film explores the loneliness that envelops a person after the loss of a loved one.
\nJacqueline Jansen works with local non-professional actors, strips her imagery down to the essentials and achieves a strikingly documentary-like authenticity. When have the awkward, ambivalent people of the Lower Rhine ever been portrayed on screen with such nuance \u2013 funny, compassionate, yet still mindful of their own advantage? The regional dialect knows exactly what is \u00bbnormal\u00ab and \u00bbwatt sisch jeh\u00f6\u00f6t\u00ab (what\u2019s appropriate). Lore resists these conventions and, in doing so, finds her own way to say goodbye \u2013 not only to her mother, but also to her own childhood.<\/p>\n