Garnelius

It’s the summer of 2007 and it’s hot outside, but the bulk of the film unfolds inside an apartment within a former East German housing estate. There’s a man called Werner in his early sixties who, in a very twentieth-century way of denying reality, spends most of his time in front of the TV. The screen shows documentaries about animals and the sophisticated ways in which their bodies have adapted, like the woodpecker’s damping system for the brain. These become subtle metaphors for Werner’s life, which was shaken up both economically and emotionally when the Berlin Wall fell and his country of birth ceased to exist. The first line spoken in the film is a question—“It isn’t working?”—the rest of the film suggests answers. Werner’s 17-year-old son Karl doesn’t speak much, he mostly seems overwhelmed: by his little brother visiting from foster care, by the preparations for his father ́s birthday party and by the large, green egg that he lays. But despite interventions from the world of surrealism and even after the egg hatches, GARNELIUS retains a realist tone. A beautifully enigmatic allegory for the taciturn relationship between fathers and sons, including dance performances and pasta salad. (Anna Katharina Laggner)

With A SOLID.O DOS LAGARTOS.
On October 21st in the presence of Julia Ketelhut.

Julia Ketelhut: UNTEN DURCH IST BESSER ALS HIER (2013, K), IRIS MUTE (2014 ,K), SONNTAG (2017, K), RATIO / DAS VERHÄLTNIS VON KRAFT ZU FLÄCHE (2019, K), APNOE (2020 K), DIE ALLERSCHLIMMSTE DISTANZ (2022, K)