Facades — komma-duesseldorf.de

Director: Alina Cyranek
Documentary, Germany 2025, 87 minutes, FSK 12
Domestic violence against women: the numbers are clear, the suffering almost unbearable; and yet, the violence, and especially those affected by it, often remain invisible. What women experience in toxic relationships, the effects of violence on their lives, and how they find a way out and help – Alina Cyranek makes this visible in her documentary film FASSADEN. In FASSADEN, Sandra Hüller tells the story of a woman who breaks free from a long-term violent relationship, as well as about a political and social system that prefers to look away. The film shows the power structures behind the facades and how the state inadequately protects women. The narrative was condensed from four real accounts into one story to preserve the anonymity of the women. All events actually happened as described, nothing is invented. A dance couple creates images of a relationship in a black box, highly aesthetic, physical, poetic, thus leaving room for the complexity and multi-layered nature of such a relationship. The manipulation of the woman is made increasingly visible through animation, by printing individual frames on paper, editing them, and reinserting them into the real film. The classic documentary framework is formed by expert interviews that clearly and factually contextualize the power dynamics and relationship structures.