"The Florida Project": Disneyland terminus

At first glance Gwendolyn Leick seems like a woman who could blow a breeze. Tender, gray-haired, with a slightly distorted face, as if she had a stroke behind her.

In fact, 65-year-old lady is nearly 53 kg and weightlifter. As if she were dealing with Mikado sticks, she swings the bar into the air, makes an elegant lunge, and triumphantly holds the iron up. This hobby, in which she made it to world championship titles, is only one of many unusual things in the life of Gwendolyn Leick.

Little by little, Ruth Kaaserer reveals in her sensitive, unrestrained portrait of a woman further shades of a personality whose outward composure she shares a sheer irrepressible, inner adventure readiness corresponds. Where their accent comes from, a photographer wants to know. She is an Austrian, informs him Gwendolyn, but lives in London, since she wrote her dissertation on Babylonian curses in 1975.

As if she secretly with her protagonist by you, Kaaserer keeps a delicate distance, without losing any of intimacy. The slight shift of Gwendolyn's face is the result of a brain tumor whose threatening danger does not cast a shadow over the lives of those affected.

Serenity

Undeterred, Gwendolyn Leick walks through her self-determined life, meeting an African with her Ivorian husband Lunch or exercise lifting weights. Her coach is visibly impressed by the unwavering woman and her serenity towards life (and death). If it gets too bad, you have to invent fresh suffering, so his advice, according to the motto: "If it hurts, invent a new pain, who distracts."

INFO: Ö 2017. 87 min. By Ruth Kaaserer. With Gwendolyn Leick, Joseph Leick, Patrick Atteridge.

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Mary Magdalene was slandered, misinterpreted or made a man by Bible translators and commissioners of the Church. The apostle became the femme fatale. And the question of whether she was the wife of Jesus, was repeatedly asked in the course of film history. Pop culture has loved to badociate Mary Magdalene with a love affair with Jesus Christ, from Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988) to Ron Howard's Dan Brown adaptation "The Da Vinci Code – Sacrilege" (2003).

Film "Maria Magdalena" gives the Australian director Garth Davis the probably most misunderstood figure in the history of Christianity a new, conciliatory facet. We meet her at the beginning of the film as a young woman struggling with feelings of alienation from her faith. Not willing to make an arranged marriage, Maria is accused of bringing shame on the family. When she meets Jesus of Nazareth, she sees in him the Messiah and decides to follow him on his journey to Jerusalem. The exclusive position of Mary requires a devaluation of discipleship: Judas appears naive and the way dark-skinned Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor) interprets the Christian message is not religious, but purely political. The crucifixion is sparingly illustrated, and the encounter with the Risen One is left to the spectator's interpretation. One sees Jesus sitting with Mary Magdalene – although this could only be a dream.

Ironically

With a woman as a title character, the life of Jesus is told from a new, feminine perspective. The almost ironic side-effect of this feminist reinterpretation of the otherwise male-dominated Bible: It was produced by the studio Harvey Weinstein, the trigger of # MeToo debate.

The quality of the film lies mainly in its actors – especially Mara Rooney as Maria and Joaquin Phoenix, who seems, however, too touched by the importance of his role in Jesus. All in all: A biblical film suitable for the approaching Easter festival.

Text: Gabriele Flossmann

INFO: GB / AUS 2018. By Garth Davis. With Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, Chiwetel Ejiofor.

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