A Year Ago in Winter
The film opens with the sudden, unexplained death of nineteen-year-old Alexander. Openly favoured by his parents and more quietly adored by his older sister Lilli (Karoline Herfurth), his passing leaves a devastating absence in the family.
To contain her grief, his mother Eliane (Corinna Harfouch) commissions a prominent local artist to paint a portrait of her lost son and still present daughter. A striking and vital young dancer, Lilli resents the imposition, but relents.
She begins visiting the studio of the strange, reclusive artist Max (Josef Bierbichler), where they are dwarfed by his dramatically oversized portraits.
There is immediate friction between artist and subject, but as Max engages Lilli in probing conversation, trying to understand both her own soul and her connection to her brother, a unique bond develops.
To their surprise, this friendship starts to unearth the pain that Lilli's upper-middle-class family has become so good at hiding. (Toronto Film Festival)
Starring:Karoline Herfurth, Josef Bierbichler, Corinna Harfouch, Hanns Zischler, Mišel Maticevic