Bora - Geschichten eines Windes

A wise film theorist said: “One cannot see the wind itself, only its effects on other, visible things. Cinema was born to film these traces that the wind leaves”. Filmmakers from King Vidor to Joris Ivens have been obsessed with capturing the path of wind in images and sounds. Now Bernhard Pötscher approaches the same documentary challenge; he shoots the landscape of Senj in Croatia, its water and clouds. But, mostly, he seeks to capture the often savage and unpredictable wind named Bora through the stories that Senj’s inhabitants tell of it. Different levels and types of history are called up and interwoven: individual personalities, groups of enthusiasts known as “storm chasers”, the devastating effects of World War II, modern tourism, farming procedures, technical and scientific reports. The filmmaker finds his mirror-images everywhere: in amateur photographers, rescue boat documentation, computer users, museum archivists. We learn that this is a place moving backward in time, not forward: civilisation is precarious, and tough, foolhardy, solitary people hurl themselves impossibly against the fierceness of nature. Dress warmly for the screening; this docu will give you a phantom chill. (Adrian Martin)

In the presence of Bernhard Pötscher.