Was macht die Konkurrenz

A lonely wanderer struggles to carry his burden – a massive tree trunk, ball and chain, something being born. When his only company – a small bird – suffers abuse from a creature who came out of the burden he carries, our protagonist needs to decide whose company he prefers on his future path. (The reference to the “province” is present in describing a sense of existence, which is pictured through both the internal and the external emigration.)

The Albanian transition has compelled Loro Shestani to give up: his wife is dead, his daughter, a refugee in Italy, has forgotten her roots and the sea does not offer fish any more. Loro has passed middle-age and understands that his life is in vain, he cannot cope with this new world. The pigeons are the only companions of his solitude. “The last day of Loro Shestani”, is inspired by real events that occurred in the hot summer of 1994. One afternoon, watching a World Cup football match from USA, I heard a powerful explosion from the building in front of my own. I can still remember the very few and fast frames of the short flight of the man who dynamited himself before falling over the his forth floor balcony. Transformed into a black mess he contrasted with the red background painted by his own blood.

Kern is excessive in every respect and impressive not just because of his girth. A former Fassbinder actor, he is an aging diva, openly gay, an irritating and uncompromising character. His strong voice fills every room, even if it is only a modest modern flat in the Viennese suburbs. He is on stage everywhere, keeping the two directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala on a short leash. He never for a moment permits any illusion about who is directing this film. He turns the camera around and holds the mirror up to us. He is the finger in the wound, exposing our voyeurism and pleasure in the obscene. But Franz and Fiala bravely stand up to him and disarm him by revealing their strategies. This shadow-boxing produces an extraordinary and complex portrait. It’s true that we don’t learn much about Peter Kern the human being, but a lot about the artist he plays so consummately, a role by now inseparable from his self. One of the rare magic cinema moments comes when Kern snuggles up to the cameraman’s hand. One is reminded of “The Beauty and the Beast” – only who is who?

A behind-the-scenes look at an animator/filmmaker as he struggles with his character.

The island Tiengemeten was once reclaimed from the sea and reshaped to provide fertile agricultural land. In the 1990s a decision was made to let the vagaries of nature loose on the island. Making plans, finding replacement farms for the farmers and finding financing took ten years. In 2006 the “reshaping” of the island was started. The asphalt roads were dug up to make way for creeks, trees were felled and new trees were planted, old dikes were removed and new ones created. Digna Sinke follows the changes in the landscape over a period of 13 years, also recollecting the changes in her own life. The signifying themes of the film are temporality and transitoriness.