27 STEPS

On the first day of the Corona lockdown, the director's father is picked up by an ambulance. He dies shortly thereafter. Mother and daughter mourn in the parental apartment, isolated on 49 square meters — and connected to the outside world only by telephone. With painful intimacy, these phone calls exemplify the loneliness of the mourners in pandemic times. Photographic images of the desolate apartment are marked by an intense geometric strictness, which, in spite of the confinement, also creates a certain distance to the inevitable. “27 STEPS" thus leaves room for interpretation and deals with a universal question: How does isolation affect us when we are dependent on solace and help?

JURY STATEMENT: The award goes to 27 Steps by Andrea Schramm, a touching, patient and insightful film that is rigorous and meticulous in its depiction of the loneliness of mourning during a lockdown.