film profile], the feature debut from German director
Jonas Bak, finds herself at the beginning of the film. Tackling the topic of duality with a tender touch,
Wood and Water was unveiled in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section of the 71st Berlinale.
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Living in a pretty little town nestled in a valley of the Black Forest, Anke (
Anke Bak) first offers herself a short trip down memory lane: a few days of holiday in the country by the seaside with her daughter Theresa (
Theresa Bak), where the family used to live a long time ago (“a symbol of something that is missing in my life or in yours: daddy is gone, this time no longer exists and it will never return”) and where some of their relatives still reside. A place that has changed a lot (what used to be a small forest path is now a large paved road, the old cabins near the beach have been replaced with luxury holiday homes) and one which Anke believes is also missing someone else: her son, Max, who claims to be stuck in Hong Kong due to the pro-democracy protests, but who in reality hasn’t visited in three years, as pointed out by his sister Theresa who is less indulgent or perhaps more of a realist than her discreetly worried mother…