Europa Europa Film Fest 2025 - Places in the Sun
Images courtesy of Common State.
Sonnenplatze, the debut feature from director Aaron Arens, unflinchingly delves into the consequences that artists provoke when their need to be great overrides all else.
The psyche and drive of the artist has long fascinated directors, writers and creatives of all types, but depictions often feel cliche, perpetuating the stereotype that all artists are tortured, sombre and emotional souls. Arens, an actor and writer himself, breaks such illusions in this film and finds nuance to the artist's drive by throwing it in direct conflict with real world responsibilities and complicated family dynamics. This is not a film that will give you the relief of an artist looking deep and finding their inner masterpiece, but it does provide something much more poignant - it demonstrates the true demands of creating, and if the consequences of those demands must come at the price of maintaining a family.
The story is centred around Sam (played by Julia Windischbauer), an aspiring writer whose selfish actions and rejections drive her back into her family holiday home, forcing her to confront her parents and past. All families are- of course - complicated, and the film’s exploration of this dynamic isn’t especially unique, but the writing and set design give the film a feeling of realness that is intoxicating to watch. Arens rarely uses extreme close-ups but he does give a sense of each character in the scene, how they fit (or in some cases don’t fit) in the spaces and more importantly how they fit with each other. The will and temperament of the artist feels embedded within the film through clever set design: the parallel drawn between Sam and her father (played by Niels Bormann) through their work spaces gives them a visual kinship. Both spaces are messy and forsaken, a clear representation of their work style, each becoming selfish and neglectful, often at their own detriment. However it is the dialogue, masterfully delivered, that builds the pressure on family tensions: mother and daughter seemingly constantly battling for respect, the dynamic between father and daughter feels like a tightrope between both kindred spirits and strangers. Each member of the family seems to be competing for the title of most naturally gifted, creating a tension within their relationships that never seems to fully resolve.
The film's most emotive moments are broken up by the usage of chapter titles from the fathers famous book. This is perhaps a quickly overdone trope, but Arens’ makes it seem more prophetic than trite,as each quote has such a strong correlation to the impending conflict, making Sam’s journey feel universal and even potentially inevitable. This leads to bigger questions: does the artist always have to live separate from family in order to succeed? Must they always be the observer, always mining for more inspiration, rather than living in the moment? What is art without family? Although providing no concrete answer, Arens does tell us that life is worth creating, and creativity comes from those around us.
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Places in the Sun is screening as part of the 2025 Europa Europa Film Festival, which runs from February 12th to March 12th. For tickets and more info, click here.