A smart, withheld story about the borders between people, Ulrich Köhler’s self-reflexive “Gavagai” chronicles on-set tensions between the cast and crew of a filmed update of “Medea” and subtle fissures caused by a racist skirmish during its premiere. Its reinterpretation of Euripides’ play has its symbolic limits — intentional and otherwise — but it makes for an effective backdrop to the widely connected world of international art-house cinema and numerous ongoing debates on cultural optics. Rather than fighting this inevitable tide, Köhler closely examines the subject without didacticism, filtering it through a passive-aggressive relationship drama, until only its most potent ingredients remain.
An ambitious (and slightly dangerous) scene on a speedboat introduces us to a “Medea” set in some version of Senegal blending modernity and antiquity. The vengeful, eponymous matriarch, played by German actress Maja Tervooren (Maren Eggert), has killed her children and attempts to present their bloodied corpses to her husband Jason,…
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