Timm Kröger
The Universal Theory
Die Theorie von Allem
DE, AT, CH
2023, 118', de, fr, it, gsw, en
Age 16+

 

When a journalist asks if he’s the protagonist of his own novel, Johannes appears evasive and confused. The novel by the wealthy shipping magnate's son with a passion for quantum physics chronicles enigmatic events in the Swiss Alps from over a decade ago. In 1962, he went to a physics congress – there, an Iranian scientist who was about to present a revolutionary theory of quantum mechanics unexpectedly disappeared without a trace. With the discovery pending, the five-star hotel becomes a background for leisurely skiing rituals, theoretical debates, and Johannes' growing fascination with the pianist Karin who seems to know him as well as he knows himself. The body of another physicist is found, and the idea of the multiverse that has lived in Johannes' mind begins to expand: surely this isn't the only possible world?

A metaphysical thriller where rich, black-and-white landscapes meet the rough textures of a B-movie, a theory of everything, a femme fatale, detectives and a physicist with a past that haunts him like wind whistling against the back of his neck. The white peaks of the Alps in German director Kröger’s (awarded at the Berlinale for The Trouble with Being Born (2020)) neo-noir film resemble sharp teeth, pointed at the adepts of quantum physics. This film, featured in the main competition at the Venice Film Festival, is Europe’s cinematic response to Hitchcock’s oeuvre, with a supernaturally visceral world of sounds and ambiance, intellectual provocations and an aesthetic expression reminiscent of the Soviet avant-garde film Dead Mountaineer's Hotel (1979), starring Uldis Pūcītis. Our minds give birth to a world – a multidimensional space of spectator labyrinths and cinematic references, where Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) would feel right at home.