Director Michael Koch Captures Magic of the Mountains in Berlin Contender ‘A Piece of Sky’
variety.comBen Croll To follow-up his 2016 debut “Marija,” Swiss filmmaker Michael Koch set his sight skyward, fixing his vision on a remote Alpine farming community both untouched and victim to time.
The filmmaker immersed himself in that world, working with village locals, collecting stories and living off the land, and would then channel those experiences into his sophomore feature.Now premiering in competition in Berlin, “A Piece of Sky” follows a taciturn farmhand, Marco (Simon Wisler), and a single mother, Anna (Michèle Brand), who find strength in each other as they build a life in the punishing Alpine range.
But when Marco falls ill with a brain tumor everything changes, up and to including the way he interacts with the world. Far from an illness-melodrama, “A Piece of Sky” instead offers a measured study of change, comparing the seasonal cycles – where warm days may vanish with the promise to return – with the more unidirectional trajectory of physical decline. What are the roots of this project? Years ago I heard a story about a young woman in an Alpine village whose husband changed dramatically due to a tumor and later died.
I was very struck by the story and decided to meet the young woman in her remote mountain village. Around the same time, my cousin, who was the same age as me, passed away due to a tumor.
Read more on variety.com
