Grand Jeté

Nadja’s world is built on discipline and control: as a dance teacher, she shapes bodies, endures pain, and translates emotion into movement. Her private life, however, feels like a void — marked by solitude, routine, and a past in which she long ago drifted away from her son, Mario. When Nadja finally meets Mario again after years of separation, their reunion begins as an attempt at closeness long denied. But the search for connection soon turns into something unnameable: an intimacy that resists familiar roles and gradually pushes boundaries further and further. The film watches desire, dependency, and power become entangled — and shows how difficult it is to step back when closeness is both comfort and threat. GRAND JETÉ unfolds as a radical chamber drama, intensely physical and free of moral explanation. Based on Anke Stelling’s novel “Fürsorge,” it observes its characters with precise, often claustrophobic attention to bodies and spaces. The film premiered in the Panorama section of the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) and was nominated for the Panorama Audience Award. It also received major recognition for its cinematography, with Constantin Campean winning the German Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography.