I Am Here

Maria (Kim Basinger) has achieved a lot in her life, both professionally and privately. But she and her husband Peter (Sebastian Schipper) have not managed to have a child after years of trying. After another miscarriage, which this time is particularly dangerous, the doctor tells her that she is now too old to become a mother. Maria suffers greatly from the diagnosis; moreover, she keeps hearing the voice of her deceased baby in her head. She still wants to become a mother and decides to take drastic measures. Because adoption is out of the question for Peter and Maria has heard in the office that young mothers in the city of Cheb are selling their newborns out of financial need, she travels to the Czech Republic head over heels and without informing her husband. On the way, she pays the day labourer "Petit" to help her contact the desperate mothers... "Morgenthaler, who caused a stir in Cannes in 2006 with his radical animated film "Princess", realizes [the voice of Maria's unborn daughter in her head] in a magical way. The poetic sequences of images he creates are some of the most beautiful to be seen in cinema today. When he begins by weaving genre set pieces, lyrical pathos and psychological abysses into magically pulsating symbols, he is unmistakably following in von Trier's footsteps. And Kim Basinger, who despite her "Oscar" as best supporting actress ("L.A. Confidential") dances to Joe Cocker in "9 ½ Weeks" in the collective memory, achieves what her former dance voyeur Mickey Rourke accomplished with "The Wrestler": an acting revelation." (Stefan Volk, on: filmdienst.de)