Three teenagers, unclothed, stand close to one another in a forest, gently caressing the wounds they have inflicted on one another. This is the climactic moment in “Oasis,” a film that at times feels like a Grimms Brothers fairytale, and, at others, an all-too-real vision of modern-day youth in crisis. If you were told that the German director, Jannis Lenz, was tutored by Jessica Hausner and was an assistant to Michael Haneke, then you’d get a sense of the influences at play in the film — his debut feature — which has its world premiere on Sunday in the Horizons section of Venice Film Festival.
While Lenz acknowledges the influence Hausner and Haneke have had on him, he is keen to state he has his own approach to filmmaking. But the way we work as filmmakers is very different, and the final results too. I think my way of working is much more open.
I try to have more openness with the actors, with improvisation,” he tells Variety. He does, though, share his mentors’ love of “precision,” he says. In his case, this is mainly evident during the preparatory stage.
However, once the filming starts, you should “be willing to let yourself be surprised,” he says. The film begins with Andy, a newcomer to his high school in Southern Germany, being caught on camera threatening other students, and as a result he is faced with expulsion. His only friend is Lukas, the son of a teacher at the school, with whom he escapes to the forest where they engage in paintball combat.
For the boys, the forest is “a place where they can retreat to,” says the director. Here, they find “some kind of a space that isn’t part of a rigid system.” As pressure builds on Andy from the other students, their parents and the school staff, he and Lukas find an unexpected ally in Maya, who attends a different school — one that specializes in music and the performing arts. While the boys had previously indulged in cliched displays of machismo, Maya helps them explore their vulnerability and sensuality, while at the same time participating in rituals of physical injury and pain inflicted by them on each other.
She brings in something very different. She brings in her own vulnerability. More and more they open up and these rituals develop.
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