Following its world premiere in the “Un Certain Regard” section of the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the award of the same name, the film EVERYTIME by Austrian director Sandra Wollner will have its regional premiere tonight as part of the Competition Programme – Narrative Feature Film at the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival. On this occasion, a press conference with the film crew was held today at the National Theatre.
The film tells the story of a mother, Ella, her daughter Melli, and a teenager, Lux, who are bound by a tragedy. Their trip to Tenerife, planned as a family vacation that never actually happened, becomes a space where the past and present quietly intertwine.
Right after Cannes, EVERYTIME stood out as one of the most enigmatic titles. This very ambiguity and the feeling that the viewer never has full control are key characteristics of Sandra Wollner’s directorial style. Producer Lixi Frank pointed out that they connected with the director very easily, recognizing her specific way of storytelling. For Wollner, the film is an exploration of the human inner world—a space where reality and fiction constantly touch. “I think human experience is our inner world and how much fiction exists within us. That is what inspires me and connects all three of my films,” Wollner said at the press conference in Sarajevo.
Grief occupies a central place in the film—not just the question of how we mourn, but also how we choose to deal with loss, guilt, and memory. While the characters try to cope with their feelings of guilt under the intense sun of Tenerife, the boundaries of reality become less clear. A key element of the film is the camerawork. Wollner shot certain scenes with a very long lens, while using a 35mm camera for others, creating a sense of voyeurism. “It is as if the camera is looking for another life,” the director explained, discussing the decision to keep the camera distant at times, observing the characters from a space that feels almost unnaturally intimate.
The producer particularly highlighted the end of the film, describing it as a sort of “endless sunset.” This final image reflects what the film does from the very beginning—it does not offer simple answers, but leaves room for the audience to fill in the blanks. With her specific method of storytelling, Wollner leaves plenty of space for doubt, interpretation, and personal experience.
The filmmaking process lasted approximately one year. Working on the film was a major experience for young actors Lotte Shirin Keiling (Melli) and Tristan López (Lux), who spoke about the emotionally demanding scenes and their desire to continue acting. Keiling mentioned that she found it interesting to play sad scenes, while López brought emotions from his own life into the film. During editing, some scenes were cut because, as Wollner explained, they worked better in written form. This process further shaped the final structure of the film, which relies on atmosphere, fragments, and what remains between the spoken words. For López, the Cannes experience was a difficult process, but it gave him new motivation.
EVERYTIME is Sandra Wollner’s third feature film, following “The Impossible Picture” (2016) and “The Trouble with Being Born” (2020), which won the Special Jury Award in the Encounters section at the Berlinale. With this film, Wollner continues to explore the space between the real and the imagined. A film about grief thus becomes a film about perception—about how we try to reconstruct life after a loss. The award from Cannes further confirmed the strength of this auteur approach, leaving the Sarajevo audience with the feeling that the story does not end when the lights go out, but continues in the imagination of the viewer.
