STATIONS OF THE CROSS ***

 Using an almost totally static camera director Dietrich Bruggemann divides his film into fourteen chapters, each one based on a particular station of the cross as young Maria prepares for confirmation. She's Catholic but belongs to a particular branch of the Church, (based on the Society of Saint Pius X), that believes some of the current Catholic teaching is wrong, a branch of Catholicism that is, perhaps, closer to puritanism. It is a rigorous approach to a rigorous subject and in filming it this way, Bruggemann puts his actors centre stage, particularly Lea can Acker who, as Maria, is never really off screen. Also by shooting it this way he could be making a documentary or simply filming a play. When the camera finally does move it comes as something of a shock.

You also know from the film's title, "Stations of the Cross", that Maria's journey will be a physical one as much as a spiritual one and will involve pain of one kind or another and Bruggemann certainly puts us through the mill. You can't make a film based on the stations of the cross without making your audience suffer. Mercifully, we aren't talking Gibson's The Passion of the Christ" here but this is still a disturbing picture. It's also a superb one and it does mark Bruggemann out as one of German cinema's most prodigious talents. See this.