Lenz

Filmmaker Lenz leaves his hometown of Berlin to explore the background of Georg Büchner's fragment “Lenz” in the Vosges mountains. But soon he exchanges the Alsatian landscape for higher altitudes and more emotional terrain: driven by the desire to see his son Noah, he sets off for the winter sports resort of Zermatt in the Swiss Alps. There, with Noah's help, he arranges a meeting with his ex-wife Natalie, whom he still loves. A small idyll blossoms in the rediscovered closeness to his son and in his rekindled love for Natalie. But the illusion of a happy family life is short-lived. Thomas Imbach's film premiered in the Forum section of the Berlinale in 2006 and subsequently screened at international festivals such as the Melbourne International Film Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, and the Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente (BAFICI). The Berner Zeitung praised the film as “one of the most sensual Heimatfilms in a long time” and highlighted how Imbach puts the Matterhorn “in a new light” and makes it a main character that tells of nature and the difficult nature of human beings.