"Loading..."

Backlight. Searching for Paul Celan

Gegenlichter

Documentary Feature
Running Time: 70 min.
Format: HD/ super 8/ super 16
Original version: German
Subtitles: Englisch
Cinema release: June 18th, 2012

© e&a Film GmbH, 2011
Produced with the support of the Federal Chancellery of Austria Special thanks to the RWLE Möller Foundation, Celle

In the film image sequences from Easter and Western Europe keep appearing and disappearing like streaks of light in a dark room. They make up a tapestry of Paul Celan´s life and poetic work. In its search for cinematic equivalents to Celan´s poetry, the film must face the “disintegration of language” and abstraction. What kind of composite image do the few remaining snippets create?

Trailer
Order DVD

Concept

All those curious about Paul Celan´s life and work will find it intricate and dark: “historically dark” because Paul Celan (1920 – 1970) experienced the atrocities of the Third Reich and its aftermath; “personally dark” because the poet constantly tried to close himself off to he outside world. As a result, Celan´s poetry remains enveloped in a deep and complex darkness, a puzzling source of creative wealth and scholarly interpretation.

My work centers on the following question: How can film, a medium dedicated to capturing light, process so much darkness? How can a filmmaker access Paul Celan´s life and not destroy facets of his oeuvre by exposing them to light?

The documentary “Backlight. Searching for Paul Celan” observes present-day “reality”, yet makes its inherent past palpable. Rather than taking over biographical facts unquestioned, I have tried to relate Celan´s life and work to the our times. The question arises, however, to what extent these facts actually reflect Paul Celan´s life. As a result, “Backlight. Searching for Paul Celan” ventures on a cinematic quest for the few things that can be said and shown about Paul Celan, an artist whom we did not know in person. The film also attempts to carefully approach the content and style of his work, a fragmented and incomplete endeavor. It is left to the audience to further explore this darkness and access spaces the film cannot reach.

 

  • Gegenlichter
  • Gegenlichter
  • Gegenlichter
  • Gegenlichter
  • Gegenlichter
  • Gegenlichter
  • Gegenlichter
  • Gegenlichter
  • Gegenlichter
  • Gegenlichter
  • Gegenlichter
  • Gegenlichter
  • Gegenlichter

 

Cast

Johannes Gockeler
Rütjer Rühle
Oskar Ansull
Jean Bollack
Arnau Pons
Frieder Schuller
Ilona Peter
Eva Wal

 

Crew

Idea and direction: Katharina Mihm
Cinematography: Mathias Becker
Editing and color correction: Andi Winter
Sound: Gregor Kuschel and Wilm Brucker
Sound design: Gregor Kuschel
Recording: Urs Hauck
Music: Ensemble Sonorfeo
Title design: Cerin Hong
Production manager: Willi Lanzinger
Producer: Gerlinde Gruber
Executive producers: Markus Pauser, Erich Schindlecker
Graphic design: Philipp Striegler

 

Filmed in Romania, Ukraine, Austria, Germany, France and Spain


An e&a Film production © 2011

Produced with the support of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture