Fenster zum Sommer (Summer Window) 
Germany/Finland
2011
Opening 3 Nov 2011
Directed by:
Hendrik Handloegten
Writing credits:
Hendrik Handloegten, Hannelore Valencak
Principal actors:
Nina Hoss, Mark Waschke, Lars Eidinger, Fritzi Haberlandt, Lasse Stadelmann
August (Mark Waschke) and Juliane (Nina Hoss) are on their first vacation together and very much in love. It is one of those endless Nordic midsummer days that never turns into night; they are travelling down a road that cuts straight through the endless Finnish countryside. Thus a natural phenomenon that erases a marker for our sense of time and a dream-signifier for “life’s journey” cleverly prepare for the supernatural that is about to happen: Juliane falls asleep in the car – to awake several weeks back, in winter, in the Berlin apartment she then and now again shares with her soon to be ex-boyfriend Philipp (Lars Eidinger). She is evidently the only one forced into this “detour to the future”. Nobody else shares the experience; useless to try to explain the inexplicable even to her friend Emily (Fritzi Haberlandt).
Juliane knows what will happen by summer – or at least she knows what part she wants to happen again. She wants August to fall in love with her like he did, and she doesn’t want to make one wrong move to chance it. But what details are meaningful on the way to the future? She won’t have as much control over the course of events as she thinks, though and trying to force them doesn’t bring the desired outcome (although they do include a knock-out interlude with August on the dance floor). By learning to trust her feelings and go with the flow, she will arrive at the future much better prepared.
The great appeal of director Hendrik Handloegten’s script lies in not describing the usual time-travel that starts with a big bang and thrusts somebody way back in time. It happens almost ‘naturally’ and will remain as inexplicable as it truly is. The clock has been turned back just so much that Juliane easily picks up where she “just” left off in her daily life and personal development. (Carola A)
