in Berlin / in Berlijn Documentary 2016 HDV 72 min./ 16 : 9 /colour/ language: German, English + NL subtitled Bostjan Dvorak, a Slovenian linguist and insect researcher, lives in his one-room home which is inhabited by caterpillars and butterflies; he himself becomes a kind of insect. He threatens to collapse under the responsibility for hundreds of books entrusted to him from the former Yugoslavia. "A fire or shipwreck would be a liberation," he says, seeking a way to free himself from the burden of the past without a sense of guilt. The Congolese brothers Patrice und Faustin Kissasse came to Berlin with their parents almost 40 years ago as political refugees. Although they see Berlin as their second home, they feel torn between life in Europe and the duties and rules of their African tribal culture. The fur shop of Eva-Maria Ebel, a purebred "Berlinerin" who once knew better days as a model, is located in one of the poor districts, where nowadays many foreigners live. Eva-Maria longs unreservedly for "the good old days" and fights to maintain her shop’s luster in a neighborhood where fur coats are no longer wanted. My view of Berlin and the people I've spoken to and filmed is patchy. For me the form of the film reflects the city of Berlin and the great diversity of people who come from all over the world. The people in the film are practically not linked to each other, except through mutual themes: In their daily existence they never meet each other, but what connects these people thematically is their relationship to the time they live in, the time now behind them and the uncertainty about what to expect tomorrow. The cinematic form is like a mosaic of different fragments that determines the rhythm of the film.The individual portraits stand in contrast to one another. Sequences of varying lengths jump from one character to the other, punctuated by Berlin city images. (R.B.) Script & camera & geluid & montage: Rosemarie Blank Artistic advisor: Jan Wouter van Reijen Production: © 2016 casafilm Rosemarie Blank & Stichting ZIG/ZAG Frank van Reemst Rosemarie Blank casafilm7@gmail.com / www.rosemarieblank.nl/ Stichting ZIG/ZAG Frank van Reemst fvanreemst@gmail.com Admiraal de Ruyterweg 102 / 1056 GP Amsterdam / T +31206839591 +31649974450   home  -  print version (pdf)