This week at the movies: Siri Hustvedt – Dance Around the Self

In "Siri Hustvedt – Dance Around the Self," Sabine Lidl crafts a portrait of striking precision and deep sensitivity of an author who has been among the most distinctive intellectual voices in the United States for decades. The documentary originated in a spontaneous visit to Paul Auster in New York in 2016; Siri Hustvedt, Auster's wife, joined the meeting—an unplanned encounter that would grow into a years-long cinematic engagement. In 2018, this led to a 50-minute portrait of Auster; in 2024, filming began on Lidl's documentary devoted to Hustvedt herself. From the wide-open landscapes of Minnesota to her present-day life in Brooklyn, the film traces the arc of a writer who understands literature, neuroscience, psychology, and feminist theory as interwoven modes of thought. At its heart are the mechanics of writing and the existential upheavals that shape Hustvedt’s work: the search for form, the discarding and reordering of texts, her relentless intellectual curiosity, and her grief over Paul Auster, whose cancer diagnosis and death in 2024 run through the film like a quiet but persistent undercurrent. Animated sequences, archival material, and staged elements open additional pathways into Hustvedt's inner world, resulting in an exceptional and richly layered portrait of an artist who consistently resists reductive labels. "Siri Hustvedt – Dance Around the Self" premiered this year at the Berlin International Film Festival.