Three Peaks

A captivating family drama about diverging ideas of fatherhood, as an unforeseen event turns a mountainside vacation into a survival trip. Although Aaron (Alexander Fehling) has been dating Lea (Bérénice Bejo) for some time, his relationship with Tristan, her eight-year-old son, remains cautious. Their holiday in the Italian Dolomites was planned as the starting point of a new life together, but a hiking trip that Aaron plans in order to win the boy’s respect turns into something potentially more tragic when fog sets in and he loses the boy.

Jan Zabeil carefully observes small moments that are so heartbreakingly familiar to anyone who has experienced the precarious territory of contemporary family life. Set against the majestic backdrop of the Italian mountain range, this visually striking and emotionally complex film is an intimate drama and a probing exploration of both an existential and a very real crisis.

Zabeil explores with few words and great nuance, Alexander Fehling’s face being the preferred canvas of his psychological cinema. Having trained as director of photography at first, Zabeil’s cinema is one of most resonant and pure imagery.

(Christoph Gröner)