HAPPY LAMENTO

HAPPY LAMENTO, 2018
Germany | HDD, Color, 90’ |German
Director: Alexander Kluge
Cast:Helge Schneider, Heiner Müller, Galina Antoschewskaja, Peter Berli

Nearing his 90th birthday, Alexander Kluge has been an iconic figure of world cinema with his distinctive experimental films. Happy Lamento, which premiered at the 75th Venice Film Festival’s Venice Days (Giornate degli Autori) section, focuses on a revolutionary discovery: electric light… Without it there wouldn’t be cinema! But, what we will watch in Happy Lamento is not limited to this; circus, the famous song, Blue Moon or the fights between the street gangs of north Manila also play prominent roles in the film, loosely but consistently tying up the storyline. Indeed, we can say that this is Kluge’s signature style. The city of Manila is also significant for the film because Kluge takes Filipino director Khavn De La Cruz on board as well. In fact, he incorporates various sequences from Khavn's 2016 film Alipato: The Very Brief Life of an Ember into his film. Deemed as the "Che Guevara of the digital revolution” Khavn addresses the traumatic alliance of poverty, desperation and brutality in his works. This theme impressively accompanies the philosophical reflections of Kluge, the grand master of auteur cinema.