‘OPENING : From a Year of Non-Events (Aus einem Jahr der Nichtereignisse) - Ann Carolin Renninger & René Frölke’

Willi is nearly 90 years old and lives alone on a farm in northern Germany. He likes to talk to his cat, he feeds his chickens and makes his rounds with the aid of a squeaky walker. The garden is overgrown. His house is full of all the things that have accumulated there over the course of a long life, relics of bygone times. Occasionally someone comes to visit, or a moped passes by, but not much happens otherwise. As the seasons change, the film paints a portrait of the everyday life of this resolute, slightly dishevelled old man. It’s also a visual essay on the cycle of life, as the camera observes nature, captures fruit and flowers in bloom in all their glory. Textures equally come to the fore: the cat’s fur, the pattern on the coffee service, the structure of a marzipan cake; at times the camera photographs apples or plastic garden chairs as if they were still lifes. The images transcend mere depiction – they contain a feeling of evanescence, which is enhanced by the fragility of the Super-8 and 16-mm material used to film them. Even the black screens that appear when the reels are changed reveal the passage of time.

The film will be followed by a Q&A with Birgit Kohler and the Directors René Frölke and Ann Carolin Renninger.