In Kilian Armando Friedrich’s Dardennes-influenced I Understand Your Displeasure, we witness cleaning manager Heike’s daily balancing act, as she navigates mounting pressures between her bosses, demanding clients, and the workers caught in between.
It is chaotic and intense, and never loses its realism, thanks in part to the non-professional actors, lead by Sabine Thalau, many of whom work in the cleaning industry in real life. Although our sympathies do not always lie with Heike, the use of handheld cameras and close-ups allows us to feel her pain every step of the way.
Friedrich does not provide easy answers on how to fix a broken system, and steers us toward exploring viable solutions instead.
