Streaming: «Schwanengesang»: Future drama with Mahershala Ali

Streaming
«Schwanengesang»: future drama with Mahershala Ali

At 47, Mahershala Ali has already won two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor. The US star won his first trophy in 2017 with his supporting role in the drama “Moonlight”, as a drug dealer and surrogate father for a black adolescent.

Two years later he shone in the racism drama “Green Book – A Special Friendship” as a pianist who travels through the US southern states with a white chauffeur (Viggo Mortensen) in the 1960s.

Now finally a well-deserved leading role, and twice that. The futuristic drama “Schwangengesang” (original title: “Swan Song”) on Apple TV + is set in the near future. Ali embodies the family man Cameron Turner and his clone Jack, who was born in a secluded laboratory by the doctor Dr. Jo Scott (Glenn Close) and her team was created. The Golden Globe jury recently recognized the actor’s emotional tour de force with a nomination for best drama leading actor.

Gripping emotional drama in a future world

«Schwangengesang» may take place in a future world, with self-driving cars, robots selling food on trains and researchers working on real-looking clones. But the science fiction world of images is only the background backdrop for a gripping emotional drama with the core question of how far one should go to protect people who are close to them from suffering.

Cameron is terminally ill, but he hides that from his pregnant wife Poppy, played by James Bond star Naomie Harris (45), and their ten-year-old son. He must not tell his family the truth if he gets involved in experimental cloning and, with Jack alias Cameron, leaves a perfect copy of himself for posterity – and in this way saves them farewell and grief.

“It’s about love, family and the dilemma of what happens to your loved ones when you can no longer be there for them,” said Ali in a dpa interview. For British actress Harris, it’s an “incredibly thought-provoking” film.

Harris, who played the role of Bond secretary Miss Moneypenny in “No Time to Die” and a drug addict mother alongside Ali in “Moonlight”, thinks very highly of Benjamin Cleary, who made his feature film directing debut with “Schwanengesang”.

Life, family, friends, death

The up-and-coming Irish director has already received Oscar honors in Hollywood. In 2016 he was awarded an Oscar for his short film “Stutterer”. The script for «Schwanengesang» comes from his pen, influenced by the death of three friends when he was 19, 20 and 21 years old. “For years I kept thinking that even more loved ones would die, or how my family would fare if I died,” says Cleary.

At first he didn’t have a black family in mind, but when Oscar-winning Ali came on board as lead actor and producer, Cleary quickly rewrote the script. «This is a universal story. Everyone has to deal with grief, loss and all the other elements of love, family and relationships, ”says the director.

For Ali, it was a rare and welcome opportunity to play a loving father in an intact family. This portrayal of black people would be far too rare in Hollywood stories. He has played father figures several times, but often only as a mentor to children from broken backgrounds.

Ali embodies the terminally ill, doubtful father and his clone with gripping intensity. In one scene they meet in the laboratory when all of Cameron’s memories, including those from his earliest childhood, are transferred to Jack. The film has visually impressive sci-fi scenes, but the focus is always on the characters’ emotional world. “I have no idea what the right decision is,” ponders Cameron in an interview with Kate, played by rapper Awkwafina (“The Farewell”), also a sick patient in the cloning laboratory.

“As a director, you hope that after the movie, when the lights come back on, the conversation will start,” says Cleary. «Schwanengesang» offers a lot to talk about and another Oscar-worthy performance by Mahershala Ali.

dpa