"A Piece of Sky" - Film Review
There’s a subtle softness to Michael Koch’s A Piece of Sky. The film tells the story of Marco (Simon Wisler), an outsider in the small Alpine village where he now resides, and Anna (Michèle Brand), who has lived in this town her whole life. The two of them exist in their own small, loveswept world, creating a simpleness that’s at odds with the harsh environment that surrounds them. Anna and Marco share a tenderness that seems impossible to break, but shortly after their wedding, Marco begins to lose control of his impulses because of a growing brain tumor.
The first aspect of A Piece of Sky that strikes the audience is the authenticity of the performances. The cast is made up of a troupe of non-actors, yet there is no awkwardness. It’s as though they’ve always existed with a camera documenting their daily lives. Their ease adds a feeling of intimacy that can be overwhelming at times. In most other films, there’s an awareness that the people the audience are watching are actors, but in A Piece of Sky, the portrayals don't feel like a performance at all. Couple this with director Koch’s tight camera work, and the film feels invasive, like the audience is a fly on the wall of the lives of Anna and Marco. It’s effective and claustrophobic, putting the audience directly in the middle of Marco’s worsening mental state.
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Early in the film, “What Is Love” by Haddaway plays during Anna and Marco’s wedding reception. It’s an upbeat dance track with two lines of lyrics that repeat over and over: “What is love / baby, don’t hurt me.” At first, this song selection seems at odds with the quiet nature of Anna and Marco. At this point, they’re both very simple people eking out their existence in a beautifully gentle way. “What Is Love” seems too loud, too boisterous for their love.
However, those two ever-repeating lines are the thesis of the film. Anna and Marco are trying to answer the eternal question of what love is and how not to hurt the people in your life who you care about. Is it even possible to exist and love someone without hurting them at some point? “What Is Love” turns into a warning, an eerie premonition of how their lives will change because of Marco’s tumor.
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A Piece of Sky is sprawling. It reaches a length of 136 minutes and never really gives the audience a feeling of closure or resolution. The film is bleak, there’s no way around that. It touches on themes of isolation, childhood sexual assault, and the fear of death. As viewers, we ache for resolution. We’ve come to expect it, and when we’re denied we feel as though the film is missing something. Sometimes that’s the case, but when it comes to A Piece of Sky, a more traditional, nicely wrapped-up Hollywood ending was never in the cards. This film is about the desperation of the human connection and the disappointment a person feels when that connection doesn’t live up to those promises of safety, security, and love.
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