Everytime

Sandra Wollner, who garnered the prestigious Un Certain Regard Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, doesn’t believe in an afterlife but deeply envies those who do. According to the Austrian writer-director, the images of the people we love stay with us and somehow inscribe themselves into the world.

Jessie (Carla Hüttermann) is packing for an upcoming Spanish vacation with her single mother, Ella (played by the mesmerizing Birgit Minichmayr, Jack, TIFF ’15), and her younger sister, Melli (Lotte Shirin Keiling). On the eve of the trip, Jessie sneaks out to be with her boyfriend Lux (Tristan Lopez) and this, unfortunately, ends in tragedy. One year later, despite their persistent heartbreak, Ella and Melli cling to a fragile routine and on the surface, appear to get by. But when Lux re-enters the family portrait, the wounds are reopened and, while the matriarch can’t seem to concede to her unspoken blame, Lux can’t seem to cope with his longing for forgiveness. Driven by a strange impulse, Ella takes Lux and Melli to Tenerife on the holiday that never happened. Under the blazing sun, the newly formed unit wades through rough emotional waters, as if in a hallucinatory state. Perhaps because they have no choice, perhaps because it’s the only way to survive.

Shot with precision by Gregory Oke (whose previous work as a cinematographer includes Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, TIFF ’22) and masterfully edited by Hannes Bruun (who previously collaborated with Wollner on her lauded 2020 feature The Trouble with Being Born), Everytime is a film that lingers well beyond its runtime.

DOROTA LECH

Content advisory: mature themes, may frighten young children