A plan that doesn’t work out: In her directorial debut “Was wir wollten” (What We Wanted), Ulrike Kofler gently and subtly sketches a widespread taboo – the unfulfilled desire to have children, including its profound consequences. However, the location of the drama is anything but dreary: the Falkensteiner Resort Capo Boi in Sardinia.
A time-out – is the doctor’s prescription that puts an end to the renewed hopes of the Viennese model couple Alice and Niklas. The protagonist, played by Lavinia Wilson and Elyas M’Barek, is the repeated attempt at artificial insemination. Again it remains unsuccessful and again the abyss of the relationship gapes a little wider. All hope seems dashed; the exhaustion is too great, the pain too debilitating. A vacation is supposed to solve the couple’s rigidity. A vacation, like when they just met each other. When, freshly in love, they surrendered to the lightness of being.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=zLb2v9_ND5k
Nestled in the green hilly landscape and the marine reserve of Capo Carbonara, the couple is offered a setting that could hardly be more inviting. However, there is no trace of former lightness. Fenceposts of heavy reality beckon at every turn: the crib in the luxury bungalow, the lively family happiness of the neighbors. Niklas’s desperate attempts at evasion fuel Alice’s rage. Until an unforeseeable catastrophe shatters the neighbors’ happiness and puts the brakes on the downhill slide of their own depression.
“Capo Boi, in its wildness but also intimacy, provided the perfect location for our story.”
Ulrike Kofler
Film Director
While Alice and Niklas threaten to suffocate in their longing routine and deep pain, the viewers are offered a superlative vacation setting that helps to escape the lethargic downward spiral of the melodrama. The Falkensteiner Resort Capo Boi in Sardinia becomes the local hub of Austrian production. Fringed by crystal-clear water and a fine-sand private beach, the five-star hotel awakens the desire for the next Italian vacation of the exclusive kind – which can be enjoyed to the fullest here as hardly anywhere else.
Alice and Niklas simply “overlooked” all that in the storm of gloom in adventure, rest, and relaxation. Based on the short story “The Course of Things” by Peter Stamm, the drama “What We Wanted” even received a nomination for the Oscars 2021. Even if it was not enough for the shortlist in the end, we still give it the rating: worth seeing!
By the way, the film has been available on Netflix since December 2020!
A dream vacation, fancy it?
On May 28, 2021, the resort will start its summer season. Direct flights to Cagliari (about 50 minutes away by car) are available from numerous German and Austrian airports.
