Wuppertal is a town that I know well, because, the same as Tom Tykwer, I was born in it and spent my youth there. Like a long tube it extends along the narrow valley of the river Wupper from east to west. It is a fairly big and industrialized city, and, due to the narrowness of the valley, its air is almost unbreathable in times of smog. It is therefore not a surprising fact that there is a high moving rate.
Sissi and Bodo, the empress and the warrior of the title, are also on the move. They try hard to get away from the sickening valley, and this movement of escape is set into relation to their dispiriting life situation: they are struggling to find the exit of that blind alley in which they are reduced to an inactive immobility.
The psychiatric ward, where Sissi works, is a place completely shut off from the outside world. And Sissi does not do much to get way from it: she occupies a little room inside the hospital, and seems satisfied with her role as the inmates' darling and shining light.
It is only by accident that a turnaround of her situation can take place. Or is it destiny? A friend of the past, who has emigrated to the breezy coast of Brittany, asks her to go to the bank in order to settle an inheritance matter. The accident occurs on the way, in the literal sense of the word: Sissi is run over by a tanker, and suddenly finds herself under the vehicle being unable to breathe. In this dramatic situation Bodo, a runaway criminal, comes to her rescue, and executes a life saving tracheotomy on her. Suddenly she can breathe again, as if by pure magic.
But then there is suffocation once again. Once she is back in her ward, she feels overwhelmed by the immobility of her life, in which everything seems determinated from the cradle to the grave, in which no change whatsoever is likely to take place. And in which something terribly great, something tremendously indispensable is sadly missing: You may call it love.
Sissi needs to get out of the ward, out of the dullness of her daily routine. And there is only one exit she can think of: Why shouldn't the warrior, who once ensured her physical survival, also ease her existential pain? For her he is an agent of destiny, the only living creature with the ability to make her breathe again.
She does not see that Bodo is caught in a trap himself. Haunted by the excruciating experience of the violent death of his wife, he is unable to give a new perspective to his life. He therefore ignores the power of fate conjured up by Sissi and rejects her with hurtful vehemence.
The characters are locked up in the standstill of their own lives, and they find it as hard to open that exit door as it is a hard and strenuous way to climb from down in the valley up to the summit of the hill, and to progress from there to a different world.
Bodo lives on the top of the hill, from which he can see the whole town of Wuppertal. But nevertheless his view is limited: he cannot see what is beyond the summit. Sissi, on the other hand, is the driving force that pushes him forward. Again and again she climbs that hill up to him, until she finally gets the just reward. In the end she and Bodo are set free, and they are heading for the coast of Brittany, where at last they will be able to breathe the liberating air of the Atlantic Ocean.
Sissi and Bodo, the empress and the warrior of the title, are also on the move. They try hard to get away from the sickening valley, and this movement of escape is set into relation to their dispiriting life situation: they are struggling to find the exit of that blind alley in which they are reduced to an inactive immobility.
The psychiatric ward, where Sissi works, is a place completely shut off from the outside world. And Sissi does not do much to get way from it: she occupies a little room inside the hospital, and seems satisfied with her role as the inmates' darling and shining light.
It is only by accident that a turnaround of her situation can take place. Or is it destiny? A friend of the past, who has emigrated to the breezy coast of Brittany, asks her to go to the bank in order to settle an inheritance matter. The accident occurs on the way, in the literal sense of the word: Sissi is run over by a tanker, and suddenly finds herself under the vehicle being unable to breathe. In this dramatic situation Bodo, a runaway criminal, comes to her rescue, and executes a life saving tracheotomy on her. Suddenly she can breathe again, as if by pure magic.
But then there is suffocation once again. Once she is back in her ward, she feels overwhelmed by the immobility of her life, in which everything seems determinated from the cradle to the grave, in which no change whatsoever is likely to take place. And in which something terribly great, something tremendously indispensable is sadly missing: You may call it love.
Sissi needs to get out of the ward, out of the dullness of her daily routine. And there is only one exit she can think of: Why shouldn't the warrior, who once ensured her physical survival, also ease her existential pain? For her he is an agent of destiny, the only living creature with the ability to make her breathe again.
She does not see that Bodo is caught in a trap himself. Haunted by the excruciating experience of the violent death of his wife, he is unable to give a new perspective to his life. He therefore ignores the power of fate conjured up by Sissi and rejects her with hurtful vehemence.
The characters are locked up in the standstill of their own lives, and they find it as hard to open that exit door as it is a hard and strenuous way to climb from down in the valley up to the summit of the hill, and to progress from there to a different world.
Bodo lives on the top of the hill, from which he can see the whole town of Wuppertal. But nevertheless his view is limited: he cannot see what is beyond the summit. Sissi, on the other hand, is the driving force that pushes him forward. Again and again she climbs that hill up to him, until she finally gets the just reward. In the end she and Bodo are set free, and they are heading for the coast of Brittany, where at last they will be able to breathe the liberating air of the Atlantic Ocean.