简介：It’snotuncommonforafilmtohaveamovinglovestoryatitscore.Yetthisparticularset-upisunusual.ThelovershereareIngeborgBachmannandPaulCelan,bothimportantrepresentativesofpost-warGerman-languagepoetry.ThestoryoftherelationshipbetweentheAustrianandtheJewfromCzernowitzistoldthroughtheirnearly20-yearcorrespondence(1948–1967).Or,moreprecisely,byayoungwomanandayoungmanreadingfromtheirlettersinastudioinVienna’svenerableFunkhaus.Youhearlonging,accusations,doubts,expressionsofintimacyandalienation,newsofseparationsandlengthysilences.Yousensetheirstruggleforwords.Whatthesewordstriggercanbeseeninthefacesofthosereadingthemout.It’snotonlythetextbutalsoitseffectsthatarebeingperformedandoccasionallydiscussed.Theintensityoftherelationshipdramaisgeneratedviathefascinatinglanguage,theactors’presence,andthecameraworkandediting,whichbreakupthedialogueviachangingperspectivesandshotsizes.Chatsduringcigarettebreaks,inthestairwellandthecanteen,leadintothepresent.History,whichwasstrongerthanlove,neverslipsoutoffocus.berlinale2016…