In der Wüste

BR Deutschland 1985-1987 Spielfilm

Summary

Winter in West Berlin in the mid 1980s. Two artists, Fernando and Timur, share a dump of a flat off a gloomy courtyard in Kreuzberg. The Wall looms nearby, the refrigerator is empty, the ceiling leaks, and Chilean-in-exile Fernando is in such a funk that he cannot even bring himself to open a letter from home.

Rafael Fuster Pardo chose to base his feature debut "In der Wüste" on a story by Chilean author Antonio Skármeta and to work with a powerful ensemble of non-professional actors whose own biographies are marked by (post-)migration. With economy and precision, Fuster Pardo paints a picture of the life of a starving artist. Berlin appears as a desert of wastelands and rejection, as a city that for all its affluence is not free and egalitarian, but rather restrictive and cold. Not everyone is granted entry. And yet the film never allows its bright mood to darken; after all, crises are there so that we can distract ourselves from them. In the lead-up to Christmas, the city manages to get back on good terms with Fernando and Timur when they attend a Jocelyn B. Smith concert: for minutes on end, her performance of "Midnight Lover" electrifies both characters and audience alike.

Source: 72. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)

Comments

You have seen this movie? We are looking forward to your comment!

Credits

All Credits

Assistant director

Script supervisor

Screenplay

Director of photography

Assistant camera

Still photography

Lighting design

Prop master

Construction manager

Assistant editor

Negative cutter

Audio mixing

Cast

Unit production manager

Post-production

Duration:
807 m, 73 min
Format:
16mm, 1:1,37
Video/Audio:
Eastmancolor, Ton
Censorship/Age rating:

FSK-Prüfung (DE): 11.09.1987, 58528, ab 12 Jahre / feiertagsfrei

Screening:

Uraufführung (DE): 22.01.1987, Saarbrücken, Max-Ophüls-Preis

Titles

  • Originaltitel (DE) In der Wüste

Versions

Original

Duration:
807 m, 73 min
Format:
16mm, 1:1,37
Video/Audio:
Eastmancolor, Ton
Censorship/Age rating:

FSK-Prüfung (DE): 11.09.1987, 58528, ab 12 Jahre / feiertagsfrei

Screening:

Uraufführung (DE): 22.01.1987, Saarbrücken, Max-Ophüls-Preis