BLISS (no relation to the Peter Carey novel of the same name) is a hard film to love initially but comes good in the end, albeit in a most unexpected and grisly way: you’ll never be able to look at an electric kitchen knife in the same way again.

Part rom-com, part social commentary, part comedy and — fleetingly — part legal drama, veteran German filmmaker Doris Dorrie’s film is inspired by the sensational criminal case detailed in a short story by defence lawyer Ferdinand von Schirach.

Dorrie is known for her method of filming books while staying true to their structure, and the early part of BLISS is clunky and linear as we follow Irina (played by Alba Rohrwacher) as she escapes from a war-torn former Yugoslav state to Berlin, where she finds love on the streets after selling her body on those same streets.

The object of Irina’s affection is a homeless youth called Kalle (Vinzenz Kiefer) who comes complete with dog Byron. Despite the fact that little happens and Vinzenz Kiefer is one-dimensional in his role — in a ‘look into my blue eyes, look at my striking yet handsome face, see me storm out of a shop/flat/anywhere’ kind of way — Rohrwacher plays Irina with such quiet tenderness and thoughtfulness that she’s totally believable as she gives her heart to Kalle, painful though it is for her — at times literally when she resorts to self-harm.

Irina and Kalle move into an apartment that she furnishes in a quirky yet homely way. But where has Irina got the money from for the rent, the deposit, the cheap colourful furnishings? She hasn’t given up her old profession, that’s how, and the scenes where she services her fat pig of a client are cringing to watch. Not surprisingly, she detests him but telling Kalle that she wants to kill him is perhaps taking it too far.

The film is book-ended by scenes involving compassionate defence lawyer Noah Leyden (a fine performance by Matthias Brandt) while the culmination of BLISS is a rush of events in contrast its languid earlier pace. The final scenes, gory though they are, also bring forth the most — almost the only — laughter from the cinema audience.

If the mark of a good film is that it stays with you the day after, BLISS definitely passes that test. Make it through the slow parts of the film and you’ll be very glad that you did. And then ask yourself: would you, could you, do for your partner what Kalle did for his?

BLISS plays in Sydney as part of the Audi Festival of German Films on Thursday 9 May and Monday 13 May.

© Roger Balch

3RD May, 2013