dir. Annik Leroy
year. 1980
country. Belgium, Germany
run-time. 67 mins
rating. 15
£6.00 (£4.50 conc.)
Doors: 3.00pm
Film: 4.00pm
The film will be screened on an original 16mm print and followed by a Q&A with the director.
“Two years have passed since my first trip to Berlin. This month of October shows me the picture of my loneliness.” Paris, October 1980
In the cold winter of 1980, Annik Leroy goes back to Berlin hoping to recapture the feeling she had experienced on her first visit.
There, as she wanders along the Wall, she films the streets in gorgeous monochrome and records conversations with strangers reckoning with Germany’s violent past — creating all at once an Akerman-esque portrait of the city, an inquiry into the idea of collective guilt, and a deeply immersive journal of solitude.
We’ve been hoping to show this beautiful film here ever since seeing it at Courtisane Film Festival in Ghent, where Leroy was honoured last year as an Artist in Focus, alongside Wang Bing and Mani Kaul. It’s finally here for two 16mm screenings, with Leroy present at both for a Q&A!
“With this film I try to retrace my journey, my story through the ruins, neighbourhoods, and streets of Berlin. I filmed the dialogue that took place between the city and myself, the wanderings in the old neighbourhoods (Moabit, Kreuzberg, Wedding), places where you can still find most of the traces of the past, or rather what’s left of them.” (AL)