Ballet is a cruel art.

Dancing on tiptoe seems light as a feather, but the weight still leaves its mark on the feet, on the joints, on a body that at some point threatens to freeze from discipline.

Nadja, the central character in Isabelle Stever's film "Grand Jeté", is still a long way from this phase.

She no longer actively dances, but she teaches, and she still has enough strength from decades of working on her posture to be intimidating to other people.

Nadja is not lonely, but above all she is on her own.

One wonders who might be able to get close to her, who might be able to overcome her inner and outer distance.

"Grand Jeté" gives a surprising and disturbing answer.

In ballet, this term describes a "big jump", you take off on one leg and land on the other, where you have to absorb the energy that goes into the jump again.

For Nadja, meeting her son Mario is such a big leap, in which ideally the moments in the air seem like an eternity, like time in its own right.

Mario has spent his whole life with his grandmother, he hardly knows Nadja, now suddenly she's there, at a birthday party, and without much ado mother and son get closer to each other.

Isabelle Stever's "Grand Jeté" is based on the novel "Fürsorge" by Anke Stelling, published in 2017. However, if you start reading the book, you will come across a strange preamble: It was written "on behalf" of Isabelle Stever.

What is that supposed to mean?

A visit to the Berlin filmmaker in Schöneberg should bring enlightenment.

Isabelle Stever lives here with her wife Anna Melikova, who wrote the screenplay for Grand Jeté.

It turns out that this project has a long history.

“In 2007 an actress, Franziska Petri, gave me a treatment, a story about a mother who starts an affair with her son.

Something about this story irritated me,” says Isabelle Stever.

“This irritation interested me in making a film out of it.

I couldn't finish it as a writer, so I gave the text to Anke Stelling with a statement from me."

In the beginning there was irritation

Stever, who studied mathematics at the Technical University of Berlin and then film at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB), and the writer Anke Stelling have known each other since the early 2000s.

At that time they were working together on "Gisela", which is also a story that exists as text and as a film, also a story about an eroticism that initially tries to present itself as pure immediacy.

"Anke was basically awarded to me by WDR in 2004," remembers Isabelle Stever.

“The later film 'Gisela' was an overabundant collection of material, I selected scenes from it, put them in an order and sent them to her.

She then sent me her version back.

That's how we met.

Very constructive.

We worked differently on other films.

We are very familiar with talking about fabrics.”