Kasseler Dokumentarfilm- und Videofest

The Tour

The Tour takes us to Longyearbyen, a small settlement on the Arctic archipel Svalbard. The oil rigs which once were the reason for settling here have long been disused. Today instead there are high security compounds in which high-tech instruments are calculating the climate change; deep under the ice crust a seed bank has been installed to save botanical specimen from extinction; and on the flat screens in the hotel lobbies the northern lights appear to be caught in an eternal loop. The community partly lives off the tourists who are probably attracted to Longyearbyen precisely because it seems impossible to imagine what there is to see. Eva la Cour's subtle montage of sounds and images pretends to take us closer to the reality of the place, while simultaneously evoking a mythical place, of which some are convinced that it's the best place to live on this planet, and others say that it's almost unbearable. What kind of place is this, where the police chase away the polar bears which the tourists came to photograph, and where the taxi drivers are the keepers of history?

Elég - a Rhapsody from Hungary

What we see evokes a typical Hungarian fantasy: people bathing in the famous pools of Budapest. The soundtrack, however, transmits the public protest which has become more and more urgent in recent years in Hungary, while at the same becoming increasingly risky. What we hear is a speech given by Balázs Nagy Navarro, a journalist who participated in a hunger strike in December, 2011, which protested the government's manipulation of public media. The key word in the protest is "elég" - “enough,” we've had enough, we can't bear it anymore.

The Visitor

An invisible visitor explores Braunschweig, a city in Northern Germany, taking his cues from advice given by locals. While he takes his camera from one "favorite spot" to another, the soundtrack harasses his stroll with a monotonous reading of the official "welcome letter" from the immigration authority. In a perfectly Kafkaesque arrangement he is being lectured about his duties and already threatened with deportation should he fail to obey them.

Bamako transit

Bamako Transit tells about migration in Western Africa as something that has become a regular way of living for many. While "Europe" remains the ultimate destination, the conditions and routines of the trip have turned transit places into permanent homes. The stories we hear are not only about being en route, but also about arranging oneself in a new place. The fury about Europe's discriminating border regime is clearly expressed, yet we also notice a critical reflection on the sometimes blindfolding fixations and fantasies of a "better life" elsewhere. It becomes more and more clear that in order to break Europe's power we must first break the "myth of Europe." The visual narration in Bamako Transit is made up entirely of photographs, which turns out to be very beneficial as it affords a much needed tranquility for thought and reflection.