Diagonale review: Our Time Will Come (2025)
Diagonale
Documentary Competition
We hope Siaka Touray’s and Victoria Preuer’s time will come one day. In Ivette Löcker’s suggestively titled documentary, nothing points in this direction except the couple’s tireless optimism and determination to improve their situation. The film had the world premiere at the Berlinale earlier this year, where it screened in its Forum section to mainly positive reviews before it “hit the base” at the Diagonale to confront the domestic audience with yet another sensitive topic surrounding the restrictive immigration politics in the country. We were told in detail what the Austrian immigration law looks like in Olga Kosanovic’s documentary “Noch lange keine Lipizzaner”, a sobering account of the strictest assimilation rules in the world after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Born and raised in Austria, the filmmaker was denied citizenship because she had spent 58 days too much outside of the country, counting her studies in Germany and all her summer holidays spent with her grandparents in Serbia. Needless to say, someone who is in Austria without papers, who is black and Muslim, stands even a lesser chance of being officialized.
Austrian helmer Ivette Löcker is mostly invisible, a silent observer and the couple’s constant companion for over a year. But sometimes, her voice intervenes from behind the camera, quiet and composed. Questions mostly come from Victoria’s family as a form of curious inquiry into their plans for the future and the Gambian customs. Although clearly unimpressed by Siaka’s statement about men having the sole right to decide whom and how to wed, they remain calm. There is, unfeigned, so it seems, a big desire to embrace the man in their family.
The film gradually changes its pace and tone, and the pessimism slowly ebbs away to make space for happier, more hopeful emotions. We follow the preparations for Siaka and Victoria’s wedding in Gambia, where suddenly all that matters is to create a huge celebration showing how well off the man is, even if we know that this couldn’t be further away from the truth. Back in Vienna, Siaka is desperately trying to get any form of sensible education that would allow him to get a proper job instead of the only one he can currently do – dishwasher. In Gambia, Victoria faces some other challenges, one being a child marriage in her future family and the other building a house close to the ocean. The latter marks a promise of a different life that will give them shelter in both countries, whichever is ready to fully accept them.
Our Time Will Come is about a couple who chooses love over any obstacle coming their way. At one point, they become aware of the potential misinterpretation of their togetherness, and they will start arguing in front of the camera if certain elements of their story should be left out. Luckily, none of it is removed, and the audience has a chance to get the complete picture: unpolished and honest.
Original Title: Unsere Zeit wird kommen
Country: Austria
Original Language: German, English, Mandinka
Year: 2025
Runtime: 105′
Director: Ivette Löcker
Script: Ivette Löcker
Cinematography: Frank Amann
Montage: Esther Fischer
Sound Design: Ines Vorreiter
Production: KGP Filmproduktion
Executive Producer: Barbara Pichler, Gabriele Kranzelbinder
Supported by: bm:kös, Filmfonds Wien, FISA Filmstandort Austria, ORF Film/Fernseh-Abkommen, Land Salzburg
