The story of the destructive romance between rock stars of twentieth-century literature Ingeborg Bachmann and Max Frisch, critically revisited by Margarethe von Trotta and nominated for the Golden Bear at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival.
The biopic of poet, novelist, and translator Ingeborg Bachmann covers six years of her life, from 1958 to 1964: her meeting with Swiss playwright Max Frisch in Paris, her move to Zurich and return to Rome, their break-up, her breakdown and journey to the desert.
The story jumps between two periods in Bachmann’s life: her painful relationship with Max Frisch against the backdrop of old European cities, and her liberating journey through the sands of Sahara in the company of journalist Adolf Opel. Thus, her love drama is seen as part of her emotional life, and not its final point.
A representative of New German Cinema, with its emphasis on social issues, Margarethe von Trotta has made a number of films about women who have had a significant impact on German culture and history. Her protagonists have included philosopher and writer on totalitarianism Hannah Arendt, revolutionary socialist Rosa Luxemburg, Red Army Faction founder Gudrun Ensslin, and women involved in the Rosenstrasse protest.
The women in von Trotta’s films are protagonists in their own right, never defined by the men by their side. Her Ingeborg Bachmann, played by the brilliant Vicky Krieps, is always at the center of the story and the shot. Her rage is directed at attempts to objectify her and limit her creative and emotional freedom.
The film will be screened in German, Italian, and French with Russian subtitles.
Ingeborg Bachmann — Journey Into the Desert
Director Margarethe von Trotta
Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, 2023, 111 min. 18+