SCHLINGENSIEF: A VOICE THAT SHOOK THE SILENCE

SCHLINGENSIEF: A VOICE THAT SHOOK THE SILENCE (SCHLINGENSIEF - IN DAS SCHWEIGEN HINEINSCHREIEN), 2020
Germany | HDD, Color, 124’ | German
Director: Bettina Böhler

Christoph Schlingensief was the biggest provocateur of the German culture and art scene. Among the director’s provocations are his film, Blackest Heart (Das deutsche Kettensägen Massaker), the film that staged the fall of the Berlin Wall as a horror movie, or the projectfor which he invited Germany's six million unemployedto take a bath in Lake Wolfgang and flood the then German chancellor Helmut Kohl's summer residence. If he had been alive, Schlingensief would have turned 60 this year, but he died of lung cancer in 2010.

The editor of many films by Schlingensief, Bettina Böhler made a documentary on this unique artist. The Voice that Shook the Silence is a great work of art, which portrays Schlingensief's works in different disciplines, his character, his restlessness, his unlimited dedication to a cause and the joy of life he has preserved even after learning that he has a terminal illness. Also featured in the selection along with this documentary is Egomania, one of Schlingensief's early films.