Free Radicals

REVIEW
Director Barbara Albert has fashioned an intricate and contemplative personal story out of an unusual subject: chaos theory, which dictates that seemingly isolated acts cause random ripple effects. Here, a butterfly flaps its wings and the ensuing reactions cause a tornado over the Gulf of Mexico that subsequently forces a plane to crash. The lone survivor is 24-year-old Austrian resident Manu (Kathrin Resetarits), returning to her hometown after a Brazilian vacation. Fast-forward five years: Manu, now a married mother, works as a supermarket cashier. Returning from a disco one night, she cannot escape her fate again, and dies in an auto accident. Her life and death soon create a flux of “cause and effect” circumstances amongst her family, friends and acquaintances. Among them are her girlfriend Andrea (Ursula Strauss), guilt-stricken and eventually emotionally unglued because she stayed at the club while Manu left that fateful night; Manu’s husband, who was cheating on her with Andrea; Manu’s emotionally unstable sister; her distraught daughter; and another girl paralyzed in the accident. While Free Radicals is clearly a serious and challenging film about destiny and the meaning of life and death, Albert also infuses such serious material with a driving rock and pop soundtrack, a witty screenplay and a sharp visual style. (German with English subtitles)