A film by Volker Koepp.

[Credits] [Tickets & Termine] [Trailer]

In Uwe Johnson’s last stu­dy in the English town of Sheerness, the­re was a map of Mecklenburg on the wall – the regi­on of his child­hood to which he never retur­ned after his emi­gra­ti­on to the West and could only recon­s­truct in the lite­ra­ry sen­se after­wards. Volker Koepp’s film is con­cei­ved as a geo­bio­gra­phy: he tra­vels with Johnson’s texts to places from the author’s life, fin­ding peo­p­le and land­scapes con­nec­ted to his work and his per­son, some­ti­mes clo­se­ly, some­ti­mes more loo­se­ly. Koepp’s and Johnson’s poe­tic pro­jects intert­wi­ne: their land­scapes and bio­gra­phies resist line­ar pro­gres­si­on; histo­ry remains stored in them only to reve­al its­elf again and again. For Johnson, when he swims in the Baltic Sea, the dead are pre­sent, floa­ting in the Bay of Lübeck after the 1945 sin­king of the Cap Arcona. Koepp speaks with a woman who recalls how holi­day­ing in Italy evo­ked thoughts of tho­se fle­e­ing across the Mediterranean by boat. Johnson’s sor­row at the inva­si­on of Prague by Warsaw Pact tro­ops is mir­rored in Russia’s ongo­ing attack on Ukraine, which affects the film­ing. When a river flows slow­ly, it can chan­ge direc­tion with even just a litt­le wind and return to its source.

Credits:

DE 2023, 168 Min. deut­sche OmeU
Regie: Volker Koepp
Schnitt: Christoph Krüger
Kamera: Uwe Mann
mit Stuart Roberts, Judith Zander, Erhard Siewert, Peter Kurth, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, Helga Elisabeth Syberberg, Aukje Dijkstra, Undine Spillner, Fritz Rost, Heinz Lehmbäcker, Hanna Lehmbäcker, Dietrich Sagert, Kristian Wegscheider, Christian Höser, Thomas Irmer, Uta Löber, Erdmut Wizisla, Karin Bosinski, Hartmut Bosinski

Trailer:

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