Yo (2007)

Directed by: Rafa Cortes | 100 minutes | drama, thriller | Actors: Alex Brendemühl, Marga Grimalt, Rafel Ramis, Heinz Hoenig, Maria Lanau, Manel Barceló, Joan Pizà, Aina de Cos, Mateu Sa Tanca, Margalida Grimalt, Carme Feliu

This at times almost claustrophobic thriller is all about identity. Hans, the main character, is a somewhat skittish type. For whatever reason, he wants to get a shitty job as a handyman in Mallorca at all costs. It doesn’t bother him that his immediate boss, Thorsten, aka ‘Tanca’, is a bully. Why he necessarily wants to be here, with a bad employer and in an inhospitable village, remains unclear. He will have his reasons for wanting to flee Germany, but above all Hans seems to be a rather gentle figure, looking for security.

In the first instance, he does not get that uncertainty on Mallorca. As soon as he learns that his predecessor was also called Hans, the ground beneath his feet only starts to get more unstable. Hans, however, bites his teeth, and slowly but surely comes to know more about that other Hans, and thus about the other people in the village. Why does Miquelet, an old man, think all the time that Hans is the other Hans? What do the bar girls, Catalina and Nina, have to do with the former Hans? How many risks do you have to take for just the right bottle of whiskey for your boss? And is there something wrong with Hans’ mysterious well? These are unusual questions and problems that Hans increasingly possess, and that make ‘Yo’ an ominous thriller, while you don’t even know whether a crime or something like that has actually been committed.

The underlying question seems to be: who was that other Hans? It only gets really confusing when Hans increasingly (of necessity) confuses that question with the question of who he is. Poor Hans seems to be succumbing to this question of identity, a fate he seems to share with his predecessor. Perhaps that is precisely why it is not so surprising that he increasingly identifies with his namesake. The invisible person who lay like a yoke on his shoulders becomes from burden to companion. That is his salvation, but at the same time it means that he seems to have to say goodbye to his own identity for good. The Hans we see at the end of the film looks nothing like the insecure Hans from the beginning. Who is he now: himself or his predecessor?

Despite the sometimes somewhat sketchy characters, who do not all come out well, ‘Yo’ is a well-acted and above all exciting film, in which the main character Hans (acted by co-screenwriter Brendemühl) is an interesting character. feel like a thriller, filmed in a way that leaves you restless in your seat. That’s great, because the plot isn’t a whodunnit, nor are there any good guys and bad guys, as so often in suspense thrillers. On the contrary, ‘Yo’ plays in a realistic setting, not the sunny touristic Majorca, but the dark, rainy and sometimes narrow-minded Majorca of the residents themselves. And the ‘thrill’ is only ‘Hans’: who was the other Hans, and who is the current Hans? An almost philosophical thriller, in which, frighteningly enough, identity appears to be mainly an illusion.