At the centre of this epic film programme is the winner of the 2007 Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen, On the Third Planet from the Sun. Forty-five years after the last hydrogen bomb tests, people living in northern Russia are arduously trying to recover their land, now littered with metal objects. In his documentary, Medvedev juxtaposes images of the archaic-looking landscape with the stories of the people who make their lives there, echoing a method familiar from the work of Tarkovsky. Daniel Höpfner’s raw animated documentary, Anhalter, is set in the ruins of Berlin’s Anhalter Railway Station, presenting an unusual take on the German postwar period. The Rumanian fiction short Alexandra is wholly indebted to Social Realism, but embeds its story in the psychological plane, tracing how a fight between little Alexandra’s parents takes an ugly turn. By contrast, If I Fall and The Terrace, the two films framing the beginning and end of the programme, recount their tales of social exchange in precise images, with a deeper meaning that unfolds its full impact only at the very end.
- Jos Kaadun (If I Fall)
Dir Hannaleena Hauru/ Finland 2007/ Finish with English Subtitles/ 14 mins
Fiction. Kaarina is a young woman working in a Finnish sawmill. She repetitively falls down without anyone noticing. - Anhalter
Dir Daniel Höpfner/ Germany 2007/ German with English Subtitles/ 13 mins
Animation. Berlin, 23rd February 1959, 11:23p.m. P. Hermann enters the entrance hall of the Anhalter Station which was released for demolition. The longer he stays inside the building, the more he succumbs to his memories and visions and merges more and more with the building. - On the Third Planet From the Sun
Dir Pavel Medvedev/ Russia 2006/ Russian with English Subtitles/ 32 mins
Documentary. The north of Russia 45 years after testing the H-Bomb. - Alexandra
Dir Radu Jude/ Romania 2007/ Romanian with English Subtitles/ 24 mins
Fiction. Tavi, a man in his late thirties, discovers that Alexandra, his 4-year-old daughter, does not call him ‘dad’ anymore. Tensions with his ex-wife and her new boy-friend are likely. - San Thuong (The Terrace)
Dir Nguyen Ha Phong/ Vietnam 2006/ Vietnamese with English Subtitles/ 13 mins
Fiction. An old man and his son are sitting on their terrace. As a parrot appears the old man asks his son six times: “What is it?” If that happened to you, what would you do?