Satellite dishes protrude from an endless forest landscape, the scientist Bernhardt smokes a pipe and walks a little around the observatory, which he has been in charge of for 15 years, when he sees it: the rope. The loose end lies in the thick foliage, Bernhardt picks it up, takes a few steps, can’t find a source. Zack, suddenly a twig hits his eye, blood flows. “Idiot,” he mutters to himself, and heads back through the forest to the research station.
He could have left it at that, let the rope be the rope. But that’s not how people work, they want to understand things at all costs. This is what the Arte series “The Rope” is about.
Part of the research group can’t let go of the rope, they follow the rope into the thicket, want to find its origin, but the forest always fights back. For example, when a branch bored into one of the scientists’ thighs. At some point, a larger troop sets off, led by observatory manager Bernhardt (Richard Sammel), this time the group wants to get to their destination. It’s already too late to ask why.
A great metaphor is being told here
There would be good reasons to stay in the observatory. There, highly sensitive telescopes are used to search for the secret of certain radiations from space. After years of setbacks, the green light has just finally been given to attempt an attempt that could allow the radiation to be deciphered before anyone else. Complicated matter, but potentially a breakthrough in the exploration of the universe.
The thing with the rope somehow seems more tangible. Those who follow him hope that they may understand at least this one thing in life. Where does the rope go and why is it there?
Agnès (Suzanne Clément) holds the fort in the observatory. She won’t hear anything from the departed troops for a long time.
(Photo: Les Films de l’instant / G. Chekaiban /Arte)
The rope expedition is complicated by the fact that there is no WiFi and no cell phone reception in the vicinity of the observatory “because of the interference”. And so the troop follows and follows the rope, and not only surrenders to the forest, but also to all conceivable group-dynamic distortions. Bernhardt’s wife, the blind Agnès (Suzanne Clément), holds the position in the observatory and will not hear from those who have left for a long time. The search will be existential and metaphysical and will provide few answers.
With the three-part series, director Dominique Rocher has created a truly remarkable piece of television, a kind of “waiting for Godot” in the Norwegian forest. The story is based on the 2012 novel “Das Seil” by the German diplomat Stefan aus dem Siepen, in which the search for the rope takes place in a village before the First World War. The setting in “The Rope” is also interchangeable, because of course a big metaphor is being told here.
What awaits at the end of the rope can be interpreted in many ways. Possibly it is the person himself and his desperate desire for meaning.
The rope, Arte media library, on television on January 27 from 9.45 p.m.
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