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CinemaPRO -
Friday, December 12, 2014 - 20:30
Written by:
Konrad Mühe
Cast:
Ulrich Mühe
Editing:
Konrad Mühe
Sound:
Jochen Jezussek, Silvio Naumann
Romanian premiere
Awarded a Special Mention at Berlinale, QUESTIONS TO MY FATHER is an imaginary dialogue between the filmmaker and his father, Ulrich Mühe, star-actor in The Lives of Others. Interrogating the limit between reality and fiction, privacy and art, Konrad Mühe edits fragments from his father’s films, attempting to find answers to the questions he never had the chance to ask him while he was alive. However the dialogue turns to an interrogation, and feelings blend together in a mix of conflicting emotions. A painful, but affectionate reunion, the film becomes both a way to handle the loss of the father, and of keeping his memory alive. (Diana Mereoiu, BIEFF 2014)
Director:
KONRAD MÜHE (b. 1982, Karl Marx-Stadt) is a video and sculpture artist living in Berlin. His works have been shown in galleries and museums and the films have been included in several international film festivals. Among his filmography are the films Match-Box (2012), Kippfigur (2011), QUESTIONS TO MY FATHER (2011), Mauer (2008) and Durchzug (2008). In 2011 he received the Award for Visual Arts of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, in Germany.
Contact:
konradmuehe[at]gmx[dot]com
Festivals, awards:
- Special Mention – Berlin International Film Festival 2011
- Oberhausen International Short Film Festival 2011
- CPH:DOX Copenhagen
- Augsburger Short Film Festival
Curator's comment:
In his search for truth the artist finds answers between all that fictional material. The truth of who this man really was. Can an actor really escape the man, the father or the friend he is? And is it possible to get to know someone through the roles he played as an actor? In Questions to my Father all the characters Ulrich Mühe played melt into one person. We see him sitting behind a desk in a backdrop reminiscent of the 1980's, asking "Like, what?" and then the movie quickly cuts to an even younger Mühe, who seems to come from a vacuum, asking the same question: "What?". Later we see Ulrich being interrogated with the bright light of a desk lamp aimed at his face, denying he has anything to do with the case. And then we see a furious Ulrich wearing overalls, holding a plunger in his hand. In this film, the actor is as much perpetrator as victim, at the same time questioner and suspect. The viewer slowly notices he is following a man who constantly seems to escape him. The moment Mühe desperately raises his hands up in the air as someone threatens to shoot him immediately makes one think of the recent death of the actor. It's a scene where fiction and reality coincidentally meet. (Maurits de Bruijn, Mister Motley)
In his search for truth the artist finds answers between all that fictional material. The truth of who this man really was. Can an actor really escape the man, the father or the friend he is? And is it possible to get to know someone through the roles he played as an actor? In Questions to my Father all the characters Ulrich Mühe played melt into one person. We see him sitting behind a desk in a backdrop reminiscent of the 1980's, asking "Like, what?" and then the movie quickly cuts to an even younger Mühe, who seems to come from a vacuum, asking the same question: "What?". Later we see Ulrich being interrogated with the bright light of a desk lamp aimed at his face, denying he has anything to do with the case. And then we see a furious Ulrich wearing overalls, holding a plunger in his hand. In this film, the actor is as much perpetrator as victim, at the same time questioner and suspect. The viewer slowly notices he is following a man who constantly seems to escape him. The moment Mühe desperately raises his hands up in the air as someone threatens to shoot him immediately makes one think of the recent death of the actor. It's a scene where fiction and reality coincidentally meet. (Maurits de Bruijn, Mister Motley)