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She Makes and Unmakes

Two lovers from opposite ends of the world search for a home, a perfect place that may never exist.

synopsis

A story about love, when it becomes pivotal, when it asks you to fight for it. Jenna and Max are in their thirties, they live in Hong Kong, her home. She has a stressful job and little time. He falls into a depression because he’s out of work and feels lost in the foreign city. Despite all efforts on her part, he is not getting better and his mental illness entraps both of them. Jenna takes more time for Max than for her career and they spiral downwards together, until she sees no other way out than to break with her job and her family’s expectations and to take Max somewhere else. They move from Hong Kong to Germany, to his home, which could be a possible cure. They are now in a shared state of limbo, in the midst of a shaky new beginning, and are more dependent on each other than ever before. Jenna discovers a new world, tries out new sides of herself, waits for his healing, but he finds it difficult to reconnect with his home and past identity. Only step by step, along the aimless search for himself, does Max find a new purpose. As Jenna struggles to adapt to life in Germany, he must provide stability for her and find a foothold before she loses hers.

Director’statement

There are crises that cut life like a guillotine into a before and an after, putting our closest relationships to the test. Mental health illnesses are such crises, and they are amongst the great challenges of our time. I want to show how simple and powerful love can be in questioning, lifting and healing, and thereby also dedicate this film to all those who are indirectly affected by mental health illnesses – the partners, friends and families of those suffering – and the sacrifices they make. As Jenna and Max navigate their paths through his illness, they are confronted with a complicated, modern world in which ideas of “Who am I?” and “What is my home?” hinder rather than help them, and which they replace with the question “What can I do for you?”. This is a story of loss of home, identity and self but this loss is tackled with the courageous decision to preserve love.

TFL PROGRAMME:
ScriptLab 2022
Discover more details here:
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TFL Catalogue 2022

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