Seven times a day we bemoan our fate and at night we get up to stop dreaming

For the weekly market review, otte1 will be showing a short film by Susann Maria Hempel on Saturday, 12 October 2024 at 12:30 pm.

As a ‘devotional book gone wild’, the film tells the special story of an EU pensioner from eastern Thuringia. In a private atmosphere, the pensioner tells the filmmaker his life story. It is a fateful tale of woe, a hard and sad fate. In 1989, he suffered a loss of memory while imprisoned in the GDR and had to experience many unpleasant things not only there but also afterwards.

We are showing this multi-award-winning experimental short film by Susann Maria Hempel, which won the German Short Film Award in Gold, among others. The film will be presented by Anja Römisch, who supported and accompanied the film project as part of a scholarship programme.

The film throws the viewer off course. Very fragmented, it is not immediately clear what it is about or what has happened. In abstractly illustrated tableaux of children’s toys and other props, the filmmaker associates the ordeal of her interviewee. Images and spoken text modules from the interviews create a disturbing scenery and allow insights into the events. Only gradually do the stories reveal themselves to the viewer, slowly revealing a sad and difficult fate. A film that has a lasting effect and is thought-provoking, even before the current election results in East Germany.

Susann Maria Hempel won several prizes with the film:
– ‘Filmförderpreis der Kunstministerin – Nationaler Wettbewerb’ and ‘Goldener Reiter der Jugendjury – Nationaler Wettbewerb’, Filmfest Dresden 2014
– Media Art Prize of the German Film Critics, European Media Art Festival 2014, Osnabrück
– Prize for the best entry in the German Competition, 60th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen 2014
– Jury Prize German Competition, International Short Film Festival Hamburg 2014
– Honourable mention in the category ‘Advancement Award Editing’ to Susann Maria Hempel, ‘Filmplus – Forum for Film Editing and Montage Art’, Cologne 2014
– Mauersegler Shortfilm Award, Interfilm Short Film Festival Berlin 2014
– German Short Film Award in Gold 2014 in the category ‘Best Experimental Film’, Hamburg
– Nomination for the German Film Critics’ Award 2014 in the category “Short Film”, Berlin 2015
– Grand Prix, Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival 2015, France

Be curious!
The event room of the Schleswig-Holstein Künstlerhaus otte1 is open from 12:15.
The entrance is located a few steps from the weekly market in Ottestrasse 1 opposite the side entrance of the Sparkasse bank.