Ruhr

Directed by James Benning

In Ruhr, Benning allows his camera to roam the Ruhr Valley in Germany with six meticulously framed takes at places where apparently little happens: a tunnel with a single car, a forest where planes race overhead, a factory with glowing rods of steel, a mosque with a hundred bowing heads, a wall where someone takes up arms against graffiti, and an enormous chimney from which smoke is occasionally belched out. They seem to come from a different reality, but are also familiar: worrying and reassuring at the same time. Ruhr was Benning’s first film shot entirely outside of the United States.

Duration:
121 minutes

Languages:
English

Country of origin:
Germany

Year of production:
2009