Everytime

Somewhere in Austria, young Jessie is preparing for a vacation with her mother, Ella, and her little sister, Melli. Before the family leaves for their voyage, Jessie sneaks out to a party with her boyfriend Lux. Perusing the roof of a neighbouring high-rise, the young inebriated soul falls victim to an irreversible accident. As the family attempts to reconcile with the sudden loss of their oldest sibling, Jessie’s mother, Ella, begins to search for reconciliation in the aftermath of their tragedy. Together, with Lux and Melli by the matriarch’s side, the broken family decide to travel to the coast of Tenerife to celebrate a holiday that never happened. Learning to cope with the absence of their eldest, the family begins to learn how to forgive without forgetting the memory of their deceased daughter. 

Sandra Wollner’s enigmatic follow-up to her cryptic science-fiction fable ‘The Trouble With Being Born’ extends her thematic examination on the livelihood and persistence of broken families. Everytime is simultaneously beguiling and magical, a film that skillfully incorporates present-day technology to inform the characters’ interiority and dissociation from reality. Without a single wasted image, Everytime’s spellbinding storytelling utilises the setup of a familiar coming-of-age story to spotlight the unexpected, harrowing, and life-affirming revelations at the crux of its forgiving family unit. Wollner’s luminescent reflection on mortality, love, and grief is a miraculous cinematic achievement and one of the year’s very best films.  - David Cuevas