The Ground Beneath My Feet

Presenting a brutal study of a highly disciplined survivor of lifelong trauma, this German drama features a remarkable performance by Valerie Pachner as Lola, whose self-containment and buttoned-down world spiral out of her rigid control. A competitive executive in a corporate consultant firm that trims costs at other companies (largely by shedding employees), Lola is on the brink of a major professional success when she is undone by her schizophrenic, suicidal older sister, Conny (Pia Hierzegger). Orphaned at a young age, Lola was raised by Conny, although the latter’s mental illness was a big factor in Lola’s go-it-alone approach to life. When Conny is admitted to a hospital’s psychiatric ward after a suicide attempt, Lola tries to keep the crisis at arm’s length, but Conny creates an unwanted distraction for Lola that ruthless colleagues are eager to exploit—including her lover. Writer-director Marie Kreutzer is more interested in character study than in committing to a narrative groove. Lola, for instance, keeps receiving unsettling, vaguely threatening phone calls from Conny in which the latter indicates that she’s not in the hospital anymore and is spying on her sister, but Kreutzer ultimately drops this mystery with no explanation, vaguely implying that Lola’s anxiety and imagination are running wild. But quibbles about the plot can be brushed aside on the strength of Pachner and Hierzegger’s intense performances. Recommended. (T. Keogh)