Skilled fabulists are natural magnets, drawing people around them with convincing tales and a constructed autobiography just this side of extravagant to be believable. It’s all in the degrees, as Jöns Jönsson’s intriguing sophomore feature Axiom understands well, unfolding in enigmatic sections that have the viewer taken in, perplexed and then caught up by the protagonist’s pathological ruses. It’s a difficult act to sustain, but thoughtfully observational visuals and the script’s careful way of adding new layers keep us involved even though the dialogue often feels like the characters should be younger than how they’re cast. Equally difficult will be finding the right marketing strategy, though festivals are the film’s natural berth.
Museum attendant Julius (Moritz von Treuenfels) pays attention to the visitors passing in and out of the galleries, projecting a reassuring managerial superiority. He’s quick with advice for new hire Erik (Thomas Schubert) and friendly with other staff members, including docent Lizi (Ines Marie Westernströer) who’s agreed to go on a sailing trip with Julius and friends Jonas (Maximilian Hildebrandt) and Savo (Zejhun Demirov). The three are annoyed to discover that Julius invited Erik without asking them, but they’re reassured his family’s sailing boat is roomy enough for all, although puzzled as to why he parks the car quite a distance from the marina and makes them walk through the countryside to get there. Everyone is also taken aback by how quickly he loses his cool over an easily rectifiable oversight, which is the first hint that something isn’t quite right here.
Julius has a certain magnetism: as a natural raconteur comfortable in all subjects, he draws people towards him, chatty and commanding but generally not intimidatingly so, and he doesn’t flaunt his aristocratic background. You have a sense he needs to be right on all occasions, but it’s a flaw more than a red light. Then suddenly in the marina shop he has what appears to be an epileptic seizure, which means the sailing trip is cancelled before they’ve even seen the boat.
His mother (Petra Welteroth) gets him from the hospital and brings him home, when it becomes clear that Julius isn’t what he claims: there’s no family boat and no aristocratic lineage. He downplays the seizure and is restless in her home, clashing with his surly brother (Felix Tittel) and berated by his mother: “when will you finally stop?” she demands, and while the script doesn’t connect that pleading question with anything specific, by now audiences realize Julius is a compulsive liar, so when he tells his mother he’s dating an opera singer, we already doubt his word. Surprisingly that part is true (a nice little twist), but Marie (Ricarda Seifried) thinks her boyfriend is a respected architect working for a high-powered firm. Clearly she’s never gone to the basement apartment he shares, nor has she been to his “office.”
There’s a lovely extended sequence early on of a hazelnut husk falling into a stream and being carried away by the water’s flow, its short curling protuberances extending in all directions and encasing the nut within; are we meant to think of this as a metaphor? Is the real Julius like that nut, surrounded by a self-created shell, floating along life’s slipstream in a continual act of self-creation? If there is meant to be a parallel, it’s certainly a stretch, like a few plot twists that at times can challenge the willing suspension of disbelief – Julius’ pretence is unsustainable, but perhaps that doesn’t really matter since he’ll adapt to all situations.
Ultimately, like that hazelnut husk, it’s not the film’s individual elements but the atmosphere it conjures that leaves a mark. Julius’ ability to convincingly lie and then autodestruct when he’s about to be found out generates a sense of destabilization in us – could we too be so easily taken in by a friend’s fabrications? Though Jönsson’s dialogue often sounds like the kind of philosophizing one expects from college freshmen rather than adults out in the world, the situations play on the tension between normality and disruption, leaving a lingering sense of uneasiness, such as an excellent dinner scene when Marie has Julius meet her parents (Marita Breuer, Rolf Kanies), the static camera’s voyeuristic eye conveying solidity and apprehension as we wait for the next trumped-up story to come flowing from Julius’ mouth.
Director: Jöns Jönsson
Screenplay: Jöns Jönsson
Cast: Moritz von Treuenfels, Ricarda Seifried, Thomas Schubert, Petra Welteroth, Ines Marie Westernströer, Maximilian Hildebrandt, Zejhun Demirov, Felix Tittel, Deniz Orta, Hendrik Kraft, Marita Breuer, Rolf Kanies, Ben Plunkett-Reynolds.
Producers: Amir Hamz, Christian Springer, Fahri Yardim
Cinematography: Johannes Louis
Production design: Claudia Steinert
Costume design: Elisabeth Kraus
Editing: Stefan Oliveira-Pita
Sound: Michael Schlömer, Paul Rischer
Production companies: Bon Voyage Films (Germany), WDR (Germany) in association with ARTE (Germany)
World sales: The Playmaker Munich
Venue: Berlinale (Encounters)
In German, English
112 minutes
