Writer-director Sara Summa stars alongside her real-life brother Robin Summa, in this playful auto-fictional road trip from Berlin to Paris.

Siblings Arthur and Diana are en route from Berlin to Paris in their late father’s Renault with Diana’s adorable two-year-old son in tow. On a mission to renew an expired MOT — a certificate confirming a vehicle’s compliance with road safety and environmental standards — on their shared car, a rusty childhood relic, they also plan on visiting their aging mother along the way.

With no topic off the table, Arthur — who is younger, with a bohemian air, and into geocaching — is adjacent to intense and pragmatic Diana, who’s just looking to get from point A to point B. Between bantering and bickering, and with a flat tire to boot, the pair encounter a beautiful vagabond, have a run-in with the police, party, attend a funeral, and detour through Italy. Charming every step of the way, the family will wind up with a few more friends and hopes than they departed with.

Sara Summa constructs a playful and intimate sophomore feature following her debut The Last to See Them, which screened in the Berlinale’s Forum programme in 2019. A European road movie on the surface, Arthur&Diana is the autofictional brainchild of Summa, who plays the headstrong lead alongside her real-life brother, Robin Summa.

Accompanied by Ben Roessler’s delightful score and shot on MiniDV, Betacam, and 16mm by Faraz Fesharaki (who follows his work on Alexandre Koberidze’s What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?), Arthur&Diana moves constantly between the tension and stasis that bonds all families and sometimes propels us to stay on course.

DOROTA LECH