The German director Christian Petzold, known for films such as Barbara, Undine and Afire, presents one of his earliest works for cinema, a personal exploration of memory and the inescapable traces of the past. In Gespenster (which literally translates as ‘ghosts’), the contemporary master of melodrama joins forces with Harun Farocki (Images of the World and The Inscription of War), giving rise to a film with two intertwined stories: that of Françoise, a woman who has never stopped searching for her daughter who was kidnapped years ago, and the story of Nina, an orphaned teenager who wanders the world trying to find a reason for being. In the midst of a spectral Berlin, chance - or, perhaps, destiny - will unite both searches. An encounter that will lead the two women to look directly at the trauma, with the desire to find reconciliation with their own past in each other.
Christian Petzold
He was born in Hilden (Germany) in 1960.He studied German and Drama before training Film at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). After his first feature films (‘Pilots’, 1995; ‘Cuba Libre’, 1996; and ‘The Sex Thief’, 1998), he won the German Film Award for best film with ‘The State I Am In’ (2000). His films, distinguished with important awards at numerous international festivals, usually have their world premiere at the Berlin Festival, where he won Panorama’s Fipresci award for ‘Wolfsbur’ (2003), the Silver Bear for best actress for Nina Hoss in ‘Yella’ (2007), the Silver Bear for best director for ‘Barbara’ (2012), the Fipresci for ‘Undine’ (2020) and the Grand Jury Prize for ‘Afire’ (2023). Additionally, he competed at the Venice Film Festival with ‘Jerichow’ (2008) and won the Fipresci in San Sebastián with ‘Phoenix’ (2014).
Screenings
O.V. in German, French subtitled in English and Spanish
Andreas Mücke-Niesytka, Dirk W. Jacob, Martin Steyer
MUSIC
Stefan Will, Marco Dreckkötter
PRODUCTION
Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber, Anne-Dominique Toussaint
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Schramm Film, Les Films des Tournelles, Arte France Cinéma, Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, Filmförderungsanstalt, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg
CAST
Julia Hummer, Sabine Timoteo, Marianne Basler, Aurélien Recoing, Benno Fürmann, Anna Schudt, Claudia Geisler-Bading, Philipp Hauß