In Ursula Meier’s feature film, mother and daughter fight each other down to the blood that binds them. You can guess what separates them.
Twelve-year-old Marion (Elli Spagnolo) puts her violent sister Margaret (Stéphanie Blanchoud) in her place with a blue line.
Scraps fly in the form of records, sheet music and broken glass. And they fly in slow motion, set to Vivaldi’s setting of a godly psalm: “Nisi Dominus”. The style is vaguely reminiscent of Lars von Trier’s opening scene to «Antichrist», which is characterized by Handel sounds, but in Ursula Meier’s «La Ligne» two women chase each other through a living room. Not choreographed like in martial arts films, the confrontation culminates in a massive slap in the face in super slow motion. The younger one, furious like a wounded animal and unable to be tamed even by two men, slaps the older one. Her head bangs on the keyboard, resulting in irreparable hearing damage.
