Gnade

Matthias Glasner : 2012
Mercy

Hammerfest is a Norwegian city on the Arctic Ocean. In winter, life alternates between pitch-black night and endless twilight. A German couple and their son live here. Niels is an engineer on a gas liquification plant, Maria a nurse in a hospice. They adapt well to the occasionally unreal world of night shadows but soon after they arrive, Niels and Maria sense that their new surroundings will not be able to save their withering relationship. Niels throws himself into his work and into an affair. Maria does overtime at the hospice, and Markus struggles with puberty and his new fellow students. Then one night a terrible accident occurs that changes everything. Maria runs over someone or something. Feeling unable to deal with the situation, she races home in panic. The coldness in the couple's hearts subsides and, miraculously, the tragedy becomes a turning point for all three family members. Caught in their own lies, isolated in the darkness of the polar night, the secret shared by Maria and Niels forces them to confront their lives and the existential questions that arise. Can one live without mercy and forgiveness? The film premiered in competition at Berlin International Film Festival 2012.