Helena Trestíková: Mallory

Nattebilleder højt oppefra over en stor by, smukke sorthvide optagelser. Det er Prag. En stemme (off) græder, snøfter lidt, bekæmper det, det må bestemt være en kvinde, selvfølgelig kvinden Mallory, som titlen så fint gør klart, sådan vil det nok være i denne film, enkelt og klart. Det er en fortælling med et ulykkeligt menneske, en kvinde som græder i Prag. Det vil vise sig, at det ikke altid er sådan, ikke altid har været sådan, Mallory er ligetil og energisk og munter som fotoet viser, hun serverer øl i et værtshus. Men sommetider græder hun, det er et ledemotiv i den her film, hvor der ikke klippes væk når hun snøfter og tårene tørres, her fortsættes scenen til hun selv har taget sig sammen, for der er hver gang god grund til gråden, det er den kendsgerning Helena Trestíková skildrer, ikke spor andet, men det er stort: Trestíkovás gennem halvanden time nøgternt og roligt voksende værk er en registrering af en kvindes sorgs udvikling gennem tolv år. Derfor er gråden tilbagevendende. Mallory er i en konstant sorgtilstand afbrudt af øjeblikke af lykke, længere og længere øjeblikke, flere og flere.

”Jeg ville gerne være kvinde igen, være noget for nogen,” er den den første egentlige replik jeg rigtig opfatter i åbningsmontagen. Og så klippes der tilbage til 2002, et tæt billede fra et interview med Malory dengang i en fattet situation, herfra begynder kvindens fortælling. Det er et smukt, men hårdt og hærget ungt ansigt som fortæller om nattelivet i byen, og under den den rolige, sammenhængende fremstilling lægges igen nattebilleder fra byen i gadelys, lange smukke sorthvide scener: denne by er rammen for Mallorys liv og fortælling, og der klippes til arkivmateriale, til animerede heavy metal koncerter dengang, dette voldsomme liv var indholdet i Mallorys dage, altså nu for tretten år siden.

Mallory forelsker sig i trommespilleren, og hun får et barn, drengen Krystof. Det ser ordentligt og lykkligt ud, mor og barn, pusle, tøj på, ned ad trappen i en smuk, gammel, ordentlig ejendom. Tur med barnevogn i sommerdagen. Det her kan hun godt. Men der er nattesiden, spiritus og det som er værre. Myndighederne fjerner barnet, Mallory er henvist til samkvem i korte perioder.

I andet kapitel er vi fremme ved 2009. Mallory er hjemløs, bor i en bil sammen med kæresten Vrata. Krystof er nu en stor og fornuftig og dygtig dreng. Han kommer stadigvæk på samkvem nogle timer engang imellem nu der i bilen som ikke kan køre, med aggressivt af visse naboer knuste ruder taped til med plastik, på glad og muntert samkvem der i bilen på gaden hvor vi er ved historiens mest fortvivlende nulpunkt. Men der er meget tilbage at se i filmen, andre situationer med en hovedperson som har uanede kræfter og evner til at rejse sig igen og igen. Hun græder lidt og snøfter lidt og demonstrerer så omhyggeligt en hjemløs’ morgentoilette…

Helena Trestíková har fulgt og med observerende kamera skildret Mallorys liv i Prag gennem tolv tretten år må det være, hun bruger selv det nøgterne ord registreret, men samtidig måske næsten bag sin ryg har hun også registreret sit og Mallorys projekt, for det må bestemt have været et fælles projekt, eller måske et projekt i et venskab. På et socialkontor et jobcenter et boligkontor, det kan netop i denne film være lige meget, sætter medarbejderne der sig imod filmholdets tilstedeværelse. Mallory tager resolut affære, tager ledelsen og ansvaret for projektet, tager det klogt i forsvar og forklarer rolig venlig og autoritativ at filmen handler om hende og ikke om kontoret og dets medarbejdere. Kameraet skildrer diskussionen og i et rush fanger det et øjeblik Helena Trestíková. Hun er også rolig, jeg ser hendes tilfredshed, hendes overblik og hendes stolthed ved Mallory. Jeg holder meget af den scene, den er herefter en af filmkunstens umistelige øjeblikke af ægthed, en lillebitte vigtig del af et umisteligt filmværk.

Tjekkiet 2015, 97 min. Vises på CPH:DOX I AFTEN, 9. november 19:30 i GRAND TEATRET, København (Helena Trestíková er til stede), igen i Grand Teatret på fredag, 13. november 12:00 og lørdag 14. november 16:30 i Nordisk Film Palads.

SYNOPSIS

Mallory is living a hard life. Her wild youth among punks and skinheads in Prague’s underground is over, and after several years on both drugs and living on the streets, it is slowly the last chance for the self-conscious Mallory – and nobody is more aware of this than herself. But when the self-destructive lifestyle was, in her own words, a protest against both her parents and the Bolsheviks, it is not easy to replace heroin with a steady job. Especially if you live in a car and are up against a social bureaucracy that seems to come straight out of a Kafka story. The fact, however, that the Czech veteran Helena Třeštíkovás has followed Mallory for 7 years makes the film about her an existential and almost physical experience of the passage of life, and of the good and bad choices that shape it along the way. Not least when it all suddenly takes a dramatic turn, and the possibility to turn back to life appears from a new, unexpected direction. (CPH:DOX programme)

FILMOGRAFI

Selected posts by Tue Steen Müller:

Helena Trestíková  René  Katka  Dok Leipzig 2011  Private Universe (2013)

LINKS

http://cphdox.dk/program/film/?id=3106  (Programside med billetbestilling)

http://cphdox.dk/en/programme/film/?id=3106  (Programme, tickets)

http://dafilms.com/director/167-helena-trestikova/  (On Helena Trestíková and her works)

Zhao Liang: Behemoth

 

Det handler om at slå Jorden i stykker, at nogen faktisk gør det, og filmen åbner chokerende med et præcist og flot, ja, klinisk billede af et voldsomt sår i Jordens overflade et ellers dejligt sted i verden. Nogen destruerer et vidunderligt landskab. Et skilt her i titelsekvensen bringer et citat: ”God created the beast Behemoth on the 5th day. It was the largest monster on earth…”altså den femte dag, dagen for fuglenes, fiskenes og alle havdyrs skabelse, deriblandt altså bæstet, og der står endvidere: ”… A thousand mountains yielded food for him”, altså ydede, ofrede, overgav mad til monsteret. Det er hvad der ødelægger Jorden og dens landskaber, det er hvad Zhao Liangs imponerende og skræmmende filmbillede viser. I dette inferno ligger en nøgen skikkelse sammenkrummet ved kanten af det grønne landskab som endnu ikke er ædt af maskinernes endeløse række og en stemme læser omhyggeligt og stilfærdigt lydafgrænset et digt eller et citat. Er det fra Den guddommelige komedie? Det er ikke så afgørende, det er holdningen, ærbødigheden den beherskede sorg, som er det vigtige. Jeg overværer lige nu en stor smuk elegi tage sin begyndelse.

Filmen skildrer en nomadisk kultur på en uendelig højslette dækket af græs, her vokser dyrenes foder: En smuk rytter, en hyrde til hest i filmens skønneste frihedselskende panorering, en lejr med får og geder, filthuset og så den almindelige bil, nomader af dag benytter af og til.

Men i dette billedes baggrund fyldes lastbiler med behemoths råstofudnyttelse af ufatteligt omfang. Man imponeres først af den fotografiske storhed, en dyrkelse af billedet på det store lærred, men i indholdet af en brutalitet som minder meget om Herzogs nådesløse Lessons of Darkness(1992). Men hvor hans film meget er præget af et stort personligt indtalt essay er Zhao Liangs fortællestemme en skrøbelig lyrisk citatfyldt tekst som i omhyggelig grafik anbringes i billedet som integreret litteratur. Det er i Herzogs værk de store optagelser af oliebrandene i den arabiske ørken og krigens sår i landskabet der, som modsvarer minedriftens og råstofudnyttelsen flammer til himlen og voldsomme ar i jordoverfladen her på den mongolske højslette. I en tilsvarende tragisk filmopera så at sige med billedarier i meget lange scener med tid til at se og tænke – men tænke hvad? Fortvivle?

Zao Liang går herefter i dybden med arbejdernes sikkerhedsforhold, arbejdernes boligforhold, arbejdernes private forhold. Det er langsomme, omhyggelige, tavse scener, så vand som hældes i vandfadet hjemme efter arbejdet og snavsets omfang bliver det steds drama efter maskinernes voldsomme støj det andet sted. Zao Liangs stil er udsøgt stilisering, kontrolleret æsteticering uden et sekunds overskridelse. En nøgtern optagelse af elevatorturen ned i dybet i real tid ned til minegangen og hen ad den langt langt under jorden hvad jeg nu fysisk forstår er langt nede, vil ikke uden videre glemmes. Hernede, herhenne æder bæstet Jorden.

Zao Liangs Behemoth er en fortolket myte, men fortolkningen er så enkel og evig fordi den kan rummes i én tanke, at den selv er en ny tids begrædelsens myte. I et storslået filmværk mindes jeg stilfærdigt eftertrykkeligt om de store stridende principper, ondt mod godt, grådighed mod nøjsomhed, rigdom mod fattigdom, grimhed mod skønhed. Zhao Liangs vældige billeder vil blive i min erindring længe, nok al tid, billeder af arbejdets ydmygelse og arbejderhjemmets værdighed, den unyttige nye by af tomme højhuse og steppens arkitekturskønhed, et kubeformet hus af filttæpper fremstillet af fårenes uld.

Kina, Frankrig 2015, 95 min. På CPH:DOX i dag (SKYND JER!) 16:40 og 14. november 21:30, begge visninger i Dagmar biografen, København.

SYNOPSIS

Mirrors and prisms undermine the sublime images of landscapes around a Chinese iron mine in an elegiac defense for those who work there.

Apocalyptic landscapes that at first glance look like scenes from another planet turn out to be the entrance to a gigantic iron mine stretching far into the ground. Down in the noisy and soot-black depths the raw materials are mined and subsequently driven away to a mill and melted down to cables in a heavy-industrial circuit of almost mythical proportions. Any notion of eternity, however, is punctured by the visionary filmmaker Zhao Liang, who through a subtle use of mirrors and prisms (and well-placed quotes by Dante) undermines the sublime subjects in an elegiac defence of the people who toil their way out of the mines. ‘The fruit of our suffering is borne away to build the paradise of our dreams’, in this case the deserted ghost towns of which there are several hundred in China, and which have cost hundreds of thousands of workers’ lives and the health of several millions. ‘Behemoth’ was recevied as a major work at this year’s Venice Biennale. (CPH:DOX programme)

LINKS/ LITTERATUR

http://cphdox.dk/en/programme/film/?id=3026

http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9841-leviathan-and-behemoth  (Omfattende om både Behemoth- og Leviathan forståelser)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/world/asia/14filmmaker.html?_r=0  (Omfattende om instruktøren)

1 Mos.1,20-23. (Om den femte dag og skabelsen af havdyrene og fuglene). Job 40,10-28. (Om ”behemot” og ”livjatan”).

NB

Begge uhyrer er emner på CPH:DOX i år. Leviathan af Lucien Castaing-Taylor og Véréna Paravel, 2012, om havmonsteret vises i morgen og på lørdag, den 14. november se:

http://cphdox.dk/program/film/?id=3281

Andreas Koefoed: At Home in the World

 

Before the review you will first get a slightly shortened version of the precise description of the film taken from its website. In the post below you will find information about the upcoming distribution during the CPH:DOX. The international premiere takes place later this month at IDFA.

”The film is an intimate depiction of the everyday lives of five refugee children on a Danish Red Cross asylum school.

The children; Magomed, Sehmuz, Heda, Amel and Ali have different nationalities and backgrounds, but they have all fled their homes with their families, arriving in Denmark with the hope of starting over.

Over the course of one year, there is an 80% replacement in one class on the asylum school. Few are granted residency in Denmark, and move out of the asylum centres to become part of the Danish society. Others are rejected and sent back to their country of origin. Some go underground and continue their lives on the run from the atrocities in their home country.

Over the course of a year, we follow the children in an ever-

changing environment. It is hard to create bonds and friendships, and the tone is often harsh amongst the kids, as they all fight inner battles with traumatic events of their past. We follow their attempt to learn a new language, create friendships and prepare to form a new home in Denmark…”

Review: I chose the photo of a smiling Magomed, the boy from Chechnya, who is the main character of the five. He is in a bus on his way to a home in the world. In this case Denmark. In the film he is given residency and is moved to a Danish public school from the asylum centre, where we as an audience have followed him and the other four children. We have not seen a smiling Magomed, we have seen him shy and worried, and getting important praise by the fabulous teacher Dorte, who has conversations with his mother and father and declares her love to the boy (and his sister). Magomed and his mother and sister get residency, they can stay in Denmark, whereas the father’s explanation to the authorities that he has been tortured by the Russians are not trusted, so he is to be sent back! Luckily we are by text at the end of the film informed that also he can stay.

Andreas Koefoed is a brilliant observer. He is able to create atmosphere in scenes and sequences with a constant gentleness towards the kids as he did in the films “Albert’s Winter” and “12 Notes Down”. There is a musicality in the way the film is built (Jacob Schulsinger is the editor as he has been on the previous films mentioned and as he was on the Efterklang-documentary “The Ghost of Piramida”) and he dares to make nature scenes be music-filled reflection pauses in-between the observations of the children. From one to the other. It is a scoop to have the sentence “do you have any questions” come back several times, questions that the teachers put to the kids when they are to change to a school or when they arrive at the new place. They have no questions, they hope without really knowing what they can hope for.

Yes, you sit there with tears in your eyes watching a film that takes its time to make us watch children, who come from a place in the world, from where their parents had to flee. And you sit there watching Magomed asking his father, what the Russians did to him and what would happen if he was to be deported.

There is no aggression, no anger in the film – there is Love. And respect for the work that the asylum centre and its staff is doing. The anger comes with the viewer’s knowledge of current Danish policy towards refugees. Magomed, hopefully you will get many reasons to smile!

Denmark, 2015, 58 mins.

http://cphdox.dk/en/programme/film/?id=3009

http://www.athomeintheworldfilm.com/#a-home-in-the-world

https://www.facebook.com/ethjemiverden

Andreas Koefoeds tidligere film anmeldt på Filmkommentaren.dk: Våbensmuglingen (2014), Piramida (2012), Ballroom Dancer (2011)

Andreas Koefoed: Et hjem i verden/ Visninger i DK

Se det er filmformidling af høj klasse på bagrund af en smuk film lavet af et af de fineste talenter i dansk dokumentarfilm – læs anmeldelsen ovenfor. Og det er – skriver én der var ansat i Statens Filmcentral (SFC) – en flot videreførsel af en tradition, som blev grundlagt af netop denne institutions samarbejde med bibliotekerne landet over. Her er hvad jeg har kopieret (i en redigeret udgave) fra CPH:DOX hjemmeside:

“CPH:DOX præsenterer i samarbejde med Det Danske Filminstitut og Sonntag Pictures simultan dokumentarfilmvisning og debat på de danske folkebiblioteker, højskoler og asylcentre.

I anledning af FN’s Internationale Børnedag og som afrunding på CPH:DOX viser vi den 19. november 19:00 Andreas Koefoeds ‘Et Hjem i Verden’ simultant – over hele landet!

Arrangementet er et gratis tilbud til danskere i hele landet i et forsøg på at menneskeliggøre den meget svære flygtningedebat, og filmen følges til alle visninger op af lokal debat og refleksion.”

Klik på linket nedenfor – over tredive visningssteder – EFTER filmens mange biografvisninger under festivalen.

http://www.dfi.dk/Nyheder/Nyheder-til-biblioteker/Nyheder-til-biblioteker/2015/Et-hjem-i-verden.aspx

http://cphdox.dk/simultanvisning/

Nix, Bichlbaum, Bonanno: The Yes Men are Revolting

 

It’s not every day that a documentary makes me cry with laughter, I cherished the moment!

For 20 years the social activist duo The Yes Men have performed their happenings around the world. The Yes Men are Revolting is their third film coming after The Yes Men (2003) and The Yes Men Fix the World (2009). I haven’t seen the two previous films, so I wont be able to relate, which I think is not necessarily neither, the third film stands very well alone. This time they have gotten help from a friend, producer and director Laura Nix, and the result is a film that, with success, gets closer to the real life persons behind the activists.

The Yes Men, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, do brilliant stunts when they go after big corporations or organisations by turning their own “weapons” against them: suits, business cards, press conference, PR, communication and media strategies and sweet rhetoric. They create fake websites (for example Yes, Bush Can, the fake 2004 George W. Bush campaign) or press conferences and act as spokespersons announcing false positive news, surprisingly green or social politics, on behalf of the targeted company. When the hoax is revealed, it is a great story for the medias and all there is left to do for the company is damage control and eventually make concessions. It’s not just for the awareness of the cause, the Yes Men can do real harm to their prey as was the case in the 2004 hoax linked to the Bhopal disaster (India 1984, considered the worlds worst industrial disaster, thousands of dead after gas and chemical leaks) where Andy Bichlbaum, posing as spokesperson for Dow Chemicals, announced huge compensations to victims live on BBC! (See the clip here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiWlvBro9eI ). In less than 25 minutes the company had lost billions of dollars due to falling share prices (and BBC’s reputation suffered as well). They call it “Identity Correction” defined as: Impersonating big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them, and otherwise giving journalists excuses to cover important issues (from the Yes Men Website).

In the film they are tuning in on the issue of climate change. We see them in front of the UN with their survivaballs (picture), amongst Occupy Wall Street and working a stunt at COP15 in Copenhagen. We should be freaking out but instead we are celebrating the melting arctic as a business opportunity! they note (well hello Hillary Clinton and Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time Lene Espersen, bonding in Greenland), before going after Shell who’s planning to drill the arctic and pair up with Russian Gazprom.

I’m not going to reveal the plot of the last great stunt in the film, but let’s just say that it involves a bunch of defence contractors dancing hand in hand in a circle not fully realizing that they are singing to the praise of the total of Americas energy production turning green and being handed over to native Americans as a second Thanksgiving! It is very very funny.

But we also get behind the scene, in the control room where strategy is laid and even the storage where they keep all the props and costumes. We meet Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos, as the Yes Men are called in private, and address the questions like how do you reconcile high-level activism with family life and how do you pay your bills?

Laura Nix and The Yes Men have made a sympathetic and entertaining film about the duo and their, often highly visual, actions. But the light and entertaining form doesn’t mean that it’s not about serious business. Besides being a study in the art of ultramodern activism, it is also very effective and instructive in highlighting the power of the oil industry and its lobbyists, the number one obstacle on the way to finding solutions to fight climate change.

The Yes Men will be in Denmark themselves during CPH:DOX participating in various events. Somebody should ask them if they could help us with the Dong scandal (last year the Danish government sold a fifth of the shares of the public energy company DONG to Goldman Sachs under obscure circumstances and at a ridiculously low price) – maybe there is material for a fourth film…

Absolutely, yes to The Yes Men!

Laura Nix, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno: The Yes Men are Revolting (2014, 91 min.)

Photo: Nate Igor Smith

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tSEjepPNgc

Danish premiere at CPH:DOX November 7th.

See the program here: http://cphdox.dk/en/programme/film/?id=3177

For more on The Yes Men: http://theyesmen.org/

Five pen heads from me, the last one for laughing out loud…

Anne Wivel: Mand falder

 

Det begynder stille og roligt med Anne Wivels stemme, som nænsomt fra bag et fortæppe af Per Kirkeby lærreder ganske kort fortæller den personlige baggrund for filmen: Kirkeby er en forårsdag 2013 faldet ned ad en trappe, har fået en hjerneskade, som alvorligt forstyrrer hans syn og hans bevægelighed, han kan ikke male, han kan ikke gå. Hun kan omsider besøge ham og aftenen før ringer hans hustru og siger, at han gerne vil at Anne Wivel tager sit kamera med. Hun bevæges, hun har ikke brugt kameraet siden hendes mand to år tidligere faldt og slog hovedet og kort efter døde, og hendes dæmpede stemme fortsætter herefter med hendes ja, dette fortrolige og ægte ja til sætningerne fra maleren og vennen, fortsætter og fortsætter. Anne Wivel er i den her film til stede hele tiden, i optagelserne, i samværet som vokser til filmværket som Per Kirkeby vel sådan har ønsket de endnu en gang kunne lave sammen.

Titelsekvensen klipper til atelieret, Kirkeby sidder og taler med kameraet og lidt med sin hjælper som også er der, og lidt med hustruen som også er der, der er hele tiden mennesker omkring ham, og han taler med kameraet og med Anne Wivel bag det, taler om situationen: jeg kan ikke gå, jeg kan ikke male, jeg kan ikke se, jeg kan ikke genkende ansigter. Det er ærgerligt siger hun, det er godt nok surt siger han og så går de i gang med at lave filmen. Filmens kurve bliver som Kirkebys kurve, den må skabe et nulpunkt, tror jeg det er han siger, og så må den med ham bevæge sig frem gennem en række af stemninger, som bliver til filmens afsnit. Sådan aftaler de konstruktionen, så enkel er den, de to erfarne ved hvad de gør. ”Jeg magter det ikke helt, det ved jeg godt, det må være som det er,” udbryder han et sted i gang med et billede, et værk trods alt, og klaverkoncerten triumferer ved de kunstneriske sejre, ved indsigtens gennembrud.

Per Kirkeby tegner, Anne Wivel filmer. De arbejder sammen, nu ved farvetuberne og så er vi ved lærredet, ”jeg mister orienteringen”, siger han, og han kigger på lærredet, ”… det er som et tapet”. ”Du er hård, Per” siger hun. Sådan taler de med hinanden, mens de arbejder på værkerne, arbejder sig gennem scenerne, stemningerne. Med Minik Rosing på Louisiana, Kirkeby kan ikke huske, ”det er så mærkeligt ikke at kunne genkende sine egne billeder”, siger han. Så hjemme i villaen i Hellerup, træning i et få synet på plads igen. Samtalen med Anne Wivel er så enkel, så kortfattet, så fin: ”Er du ked af det?” ”Ja.” ”Det kan jeg godt forstå”. En anstrengende rejse til Aars til afsløring af en stor skulptur, en tilsvarende nøgtern samtale med dronning Margrethe. Hjemme i Hellerup igen, han modellerer i lille format. Alligevel: ”Jeg magter det ikke helt. Det ved jeg godt.” Og så befriende fast: ”Det må være som det er.” Samtalen med Anne Wivel kommer til at handle om tålmodighed og dovenskab. Han vil godt lære tålmodighed men kan ikke med dovenskab. Hun synes han skal give sig hen i den. Nye dybe indsigter kan det føre til. ”Dem er jeg ikke stødt på”, replicerer han tørt. Og så alligevel, jo, han er stødt på kærligheden og på evnen til at tilgive ”og sådan noget, det har aldrig været min stærke side”. Det virker måske banalt i mit referat, i filmen er det aldeles ægte og vigtigt og meget smukt. Og han taler spontant om hustruen og spørger om det ikke også var sådan med Svend, hendes mand? Og jeg lukkes som en generøsitet ind i et nyt rum.

Han tegner pludseligt energisk med et stykke oliekridt, han tegner faldet på trappen, tegner først trappen, ”en rigtig Kirkeby-trappe”, siger han og både Anne Wivels kamera og jeg kan se at det er det netop, se det langt tilbage i hans værk. Og han tegner med sikre, sikre bevægelser faldet og senere skrammerne og så det der neden for trappen. En tegning bliver til og koncertens orkesterstemme triumferer. Han tegner videre på et nyt ark og hun siger: ”Det er skønt, Per. Du skal blive ved…”

Der kommer nye afsnit, nye stemninger, nedture mod nulpunktet og flere og flere sejre, mange hos de trofaste kolleger i det grafiske værksted.

Anne Wivel har gemt en vældig overraskelse til sidst, jeg bliver bestemt overrasket og ved eftertanke på en måde ikke: jeg er igen med Anne Wivel og Per Kirkeby på slottet i Italien, igen på det sted efter 15 år og jeg er tryg. Landskabet i bjergene er der, den ærværdige kolossale bygning ligger der, de gamle fresker så åbenbart øget siden sidst med Kirkebys talrige nye sidder der på væggene. Vennerne og kollegerne er med, lærrederne står parat i atelieret. Men atelieret ligger øverst ved slutningen af en høj stenbygget trappe, en hel del vanskeligere at gå på end trappen til træning hos fysioterapeuten, også fysisk vanskeligere, men filmen handler om den anden vanskelighed, trappens begivenhed som motiv ”den rigtige kirkebyske trappe” og senere er motivet Sebastian bundet til træet døende med de mange pile i kroppen, men jeg ved at en kvinde vil pleje hans mange sår og han vil komme sig. For en tid.

Som hos Platon er der indlagt taler i fremstillingen. Der er faktisk indlagt to. Jeg ser det blive til tre. En tredjedel inde i filmen taler ved en fest på et galleri Hans Edvard Nørregård-Nielsen. Det er en tale om det danske og om to digtere, Thøger Larsen og Poul Martin Møller. I sin stemmes myndighed viser han digtlinjernes lighed med træk i Kirkebys malerkunst, lighed i en særlig danskhed og i en udødelighed. Ved en anden sammenkomst, det er i huset på Læsø, læser Peter Laugesen et digt og det er et digt om kunstnerisk størrelse og sindets vejrlig: ”… Det format, der kan rumme de drejende lavtryk, de dybe huller, hvorfra vindene kommer / de nedre og øvre passater, monsuner, kulinger, storme og orkaner. / Drømmenes skypumper.” Og Anne Wivel laver på en måde sin film som en endnu en tale om at fremstille dyb, indsigtsfuld kunst i trodsigt mod på trods af, en hjernes skade.

Et tidsrum i Per Kirkebys liv hedder filmens undertitel på plakaten. Tidsrum… Det er et smukt ord det danske sprog aldrig må miste. Tidsrum, tid og rum, tid i rum, rum tid som betyder rummelig tid, omfangsrig tid, tilstrækkellig tid. Her er tid nok. Sådan er Anne Wivels nye films vigtige erkendelse af livet, menneskets liv. Uanset det tidsbundne i filmens biografiske udgangspunkt vil Anne Wivels Mand falder blive stående længe som umisteligt hovedværk i dansk film, endnu et hovedværk fra hendes hånd, endnu et værk om mandigheden og Eros’ stadige jagt på skønheden.

Danmark 2015, 108 min. PREMIERE I AFTEN ved åbningen af CPH:DOX 2015

SYNOPSIS

”Man Falling” (Mand falder). Per Kirkeby’s struggle to return to art after an accident. An honest and personal portrait of a headstrong artist. What happens when a world-famous artist suddenly loses his natural abilities? The director Anne Wivel has followed her friend, painter Per Kirkeby, up close after he fatally fell down a flight of stairs, gravely injuring his head. Kirkeby had previously recovered from a brain haemorrhage and two blood clots, but the fall resulted in a brain injury that still prevents him from working as before. He has not just lost his mobility, but also the ability to recognise colours and even his own art works. Anne Wivel is there both as a friend, an interlocutor and as a discretely observing filmmaker that follows a struggling Per Kirkeby while he is fighting for a comeback while constantly confronting his own lack of progress. There seems to be a long way to go. as art is not just a question of being able to paint and create beauty, but rather in transgressing good taste. It is this transgressive gesture that Kirkeby is missing and longing for. In addition to the artist, we also meet his wife, friends and collaborators, but the absolute protagonist is Per Kirkeby in an unusually open and frank portrait. Everything – from everyday rehabilitation to emotional insights – is presented in a sober, accurate way. (CPH:DOX programme)

CREDITS

Manuskript, instruktion, foto: Anne Wivel, medvirkende: Per Kirkeby, Mari Anne Duus, klip: Peter Winther.

FILMOGRAFI

Anne Wivel. Director and producer. Born 1945.Graduated in painting from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, 1977. Graduated from the National Film School of Denmark, 1980. Founder and leader of the production company Barok Film from 2004. Anne Wivel has won a lot of awards, among others Prix Italia, Special Price by Frederic Wiseman, Nordiska Filmpriset and the Roos Award from the Danish Film Institute. (DFI fakta)

Giselle (1991), Slottet i Italien (2000), Svend (2011), Mand falder (2015)

LITTERATUR / LINKS

http://cphdox.dk/en/programme/film/?id=3107  (Programme with screenings: date, time and location)

http://cphdox.dk/program/film/?id=3107  (Program med visninger: dato, tid og sted)

http://www.dfi.dk/faktaomfilm/person/en/2964.aspx?id=2964  (Anne Wivel)

Johannes Sløk: Platon (1960), 65ff

DOK Leipzig/ 11/ Being at the Festival

I am writing this in the train back to Copenhagen from Leipzig. The journey is 8 hours long but for one, who has done enough airports in the last 25 years it is just a nice and relaxing experience that gives you time to think (and write) about the last days at DOK Leipzig, four nights, three full days for films and meetings with those, who have made films and those who tell others about them either by making festivals or write about them or sell them.

They treat you well at the festival. The cost for the four nights were covered at the brilliant hotel Arcona Living Bach14, a new one opposite the Thomas Kirche and the sculpture of Johan Sebastian Bach, including the restaurant WeinWirtschaft, where breakfast is taken, and where evening meals with a superb wine list can be enjoyed.

From there the walk took me to the Festival Centre at the Museum and the

DOK Market on the second floor with a digitized system, where you can choose between 263 films from 64 countries. You just sit down, put on your headphones, sign in with name and password and voilà the film wanted is there. It is efficient and there are booths enough to cover the demand and it is comfortable – and actually available for screening at home after the festival, until April next year.

But don’t you go to the cinema? I did and wished I had more time as the quality of the screenings at the Cinéstar cinemas is excellent and of course (also) documentaries should be watched on a big screen. I watched Marianna Economou’s ”The Longest Run” there and Polish Krzysztof Kopczynski’s impressive socio-cultural-historical ”Dybbuk” from Uman in Ukraine, where Hassidic jews go every year to honour Rabbi Rachmann and where Ukranian nationalists oppose them visa versa; it was shown at the Polnisches Institut on the big square, a very good address and an ok screening place.

Otherwise the films were screened on big flat screens in the booths at the market that you get to via a 4,5 meter high lift that is very often serviced by an elevator man/woman!

Four nights are too little to do the work of watching for Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DocsBarcelona and filmkommentaren.dk, I did not get time enough for more cinema experiences and to enjoy the wonderful autumn colours of Leipzig. I will be back for longer next year.   

DOK Leipzig/ 10/ Guevara Namer

 

Last Wednesday I got off the train in Leipzig and walked to the Museum of Bildende Kunst, that serves as Centre for the DOK Leipzig festival, also this year, with space to meet for a coffee or a fine lunch provided by the cuisine of Hotel Michaelis. Top standard.

Repeat… I got off the train in Leipzig and walked to the Museum and the first one I meet is Kurdish Syrian Guevara Namer, one of the courageous and entreprenant persons behind the DOX BOX festival in Damascus that I visited the last time in 2011 three weeks before the revolution started. She now lives in Berlin and is part of the team that has continued the Dox Box that now supports filmmakers from the region, among many initiatives with a Residence Fund, under the leadership of Diana El Jeiroudi.

Guevara Namer was in Leipzig to do camera interviews with sales agents, festival people etc. for the Dox Box. I knew from Damascus times how talented a photographer she is and asked her to send me a photo to put on this site. She did with these words attached:

”… this photo is from Damascus City Center, ”Marjeh Square”. One of my favourites”.

Guevara Namer describes herself: Has degrees in photography and drama studies from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus, Syria, and has years of experience in documentary film production and training.

DOK Leipzig/ 9/ Daddy’s Girl

… directed by Melisa Üneri, who has a Finnish mother and a Turkish father, the protagonist of this unpretentious, light in tone and yet tough and moving, well told story about the relationship between the young girl (the director) and her father, who lives in Finland and who has brought up his daughter with love and strictness. He is a charming man, he knows when the camera is on, he is apparently obsessed by cleaning his house (!), he is single, wants to find a partner, daughter wants to help build up a profile for the dating service on the internet, he has a job as an eye specialist – and drinks too much. With consequences in the relationship to the daughter.

Melisa wants to move to Turkey, she does, she is in contact with her grandmother, the mother of the father, the two of them have not been in contact for long, but although he has been living in Finland most of his life, you understand from where his wish to protect/control his daughter comes. From his mother! It does not take long, according to the film, before grandmother and father get into arguments, when the latter arrives in Istanbul to visit. ”I want you to be nice and lady-like” is one of the sentences said by the father to his daughter, and when he does not hear from Melisa for some time, he knows that something must have happened. It has, she has got a boyfriend and the father is to meet him…

And then… no, I will not tell you, watch for yourself. Producer is Finnish director Mika Ronkainen, you sense his touch in the film, that has an appeal to a big audience, Rise and Shine has the sales rights.

Finland, 2015, 52 mins.

www.riseandshine-berlin.com

DOK Leipzig 2015/ 8/ Vitaly Mansky in North Korea

Vitaly Mansky has been in North Korea. If I understand it correctly called in as a professional helper of a local film team that is to make a propaganda film for the regime. He helps, I guess, but he also makes his own film, ”Under the Sun”, that was shown at DOK Leipzig and praised there by several of my professional colleagues as well as by representatives of the local funder, MDR. It is beautifully shot, has amazing sequences of modern civilation, human beings in the streets fighting their way to work, on rolling stairs in the metro, with empty faces and hopelessness in their sad eyes. Images that could have been taken anywhere – for a Dane it brings back memories of our late graphic art master Palle Nielsen and his descriptions of modern urban life: No hope. Despair.

Mansky deserves credit for that. My doubts come when he wants to make a personalised story out of his shooting in North Korea. I could not help feel scepticism while watching, and it changed to irritation over the kliché language that he uses, to say what he wants to say. Yes, what does he want to say? That North Korea cultivates a culture of total adoration for the great leaders, that this indoctrination and brainwashing take place from early childhood, that huge parades are organised, that the people suffer? One thing is that we already knew that, we have seen it many times before, another is that Mansky builds a story through small observations that he has made: In the school class some students moves their hands nervously, a student is on the edge of falling asleep while a military veteran makes his speech, the main protagonist, the girl in the family that plays in the propaganda film, has tears in her eyes while training the dance, so on so forth. The director apparently wants us to suffer with her, when he cuts from her face in the window of the dull appartment building to the parade on the big square, and back again, and back again; to be interpreted as ”this is her future”. Not difficult to understand!

Mansky wants us to see the means of suppression of a country’s population. He assists at the shooting of a propaganda film and that is in itself interesting and illustrative. You see the North Korean director(s) go in and out of the picture to direct the family members, who have been chosen to be the perfect patriots, who in all contexts celebrate Kim Il-Sung and the son, who has followed him on the throne. These scenes are fine, so why do we need Mansky’s squeezing tiny details out from the material shot to prove what is obvious through the whole propaganda circus that is set up? Could it not have been enough – and honest – to communicate that we are invited to follow the making of a propaganda film for North Korea. Mansky insists on making the little girl a tragic character – look she is crying when she dances, look she cries when she can not remember some propaganda lines… Sorry, I do not trust the autenthicity of that. And does Mansky really care about her?

Sorry for being so long about this film. Ethical questions are not often raised around films, in this case also not in Leipzig. Schade, as they say in German!

Russia, Germany, Czech Republic, North Korea, Under the Sun, 2015, 110 mins.