New Austrian Cinema
City:
Moscow
Cinemas:
Documentary Film Center
Dates:
13 April – 23 October 2016
Partners:
Austrian Cultural Forum
CoolConnections
supported by RaiffeseinBank
and Trade department of the Embassy of Austria in Moscow
Мечтатели
Die Geträumten
Country: Austria
Year: 2016
Director: Ruth Beckermann
Cast: Anja Plaschg, Laurence Rupp
Genre: documentary
Language: German
Translation: russian subtitles
Time: 1 hour 29 minutes
Возраст: 16+
It’s not uncommon for a film to have a moving love story at its core. Yet this particular set-up is unusual. The lovers here are Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan, both important representatives of post-war German-language poetry. The story of the relationship between the Austrian and the Jew from Czernowitz is told through their nearly 20-year correspondence (1948–1967). Or, more precisely, by a young woman and a young man reading from their letters in a studio in Vienna’s venerable Funkhaus. You hear longing, accusations, doubts, expressions of intimacy and alienation, news of separations and lengthy silences. You sense their struggle for words. What these words trigger can be seen in the faces of those reading them out. It’s not only the text but also its effects that are being performed and occasionally discussed. The intensity of the relationship drama is generated via the fascinating language, the actors’ presence, and the camerawork and editing, which break up the dialogue via changing perspectives and shot sizes. Chats during cigarette breaks, in the stairwell and the canteen, lead into the present. History, which was stronger than love, never slips out of focus.
Awards and festivals:
Berlin Film Festival – participation
Diagonal Austrian Film Festival – Best Film
Cinema du Reel Documentary Film Festival – The SCAM International Award
Images
Schedule:
Moscow: Documentary Film Center
13 April, Wednesday
16 April, Saturday