The 41st DOK.fest Munich will open on 6 May at the Deutsches Theater with INGEBORG BACHMANN – SOMEONE WHO WAS ONCE ME. Regina Schilling's hybrid film combines dramatised scenes with documentary elements. The multi-award-winning actress Sandra Hüller plays the writer Ingeborg Bachmann (1926–1973). The film will celebrate its world premiere at DOK.fest Munich. It will be released in cinemas across Germany on 25 June, Ingeborg Bachmann's 100th birthday.
In a poetic search for clues, director Regina Schilling allows the audience to witness the creation of art: Sandra Hüller approaches the life of Ingeborg Bachmann on a fictional day and lends her words a haunting physical presence. In an artful interweaving of improvised scenes, archival treasures, interviews, and Bachmann's own texts, the film traces the central phases of the author's life – from her childhood during the war in Carinthia, Austria, her rise to stardom in Group 47, to her last days in Rome. Her path is marked by her complicated relationships with Paul Celan, Hans Werner Henze, and Max Frisch, and an unyielding struggle to find her own radical voice between public fame and existential crises.
Adele Kohout (festival director): "The formal and aesthetic possibilities of documentary film are extremely diverse, and Regina Schilling's hybrid film explores them to great effect. Thanks to Sandra Hüller's powerful performance, the film brings us closer to Ingeborg Bachmann as a person in a special way and opens up access to an oeuvre that remains relevant and incisive to this day. The films in this year's festival programme take up many of her themes, telling stories of loneliness and connection, of interpersonal relationships, of experiences that have an impact across generations, and question the influence of political developments on our coexistence. ‘The truth is reasonable for human beings,’ a well-known quote by Bachmann, could be the motto for our festival this year. Artistically valuable and socially relevant documentary films allow us to take a closer look at both our world and each other. We are delighted to start the 41st DOK.fest Munich with this fitting opening event."
Director Regina Schilling, born in 1962, lives and works in Cologne and Berlin. She has made her award-winning documentaries in collaboration with the production company zero one film. Among other accolades, she has won the German Television Award, two Grimme Awards and the 3sat Documentary Film Award at the Duisburg Film Week. Her films include KULENKAMPFFS SCHUHE (2018), IGOR LEVIT – NO FEAR (2022), GESCHLOSSENE GESELLSCHAFT – DER MISSBRAUCH AN DER ODENWALDSCHULE (2011) and BIERBICHLER (2007). Her latest work is a German-Austrian co-production between zero one film and Navigator Film.
INGEBORG BACHMANN – SOMEONE WHO WAS ONCE ME is part of the section ‘HerStory – Seven Films about Fearless Women’, one of the 16 thematically structured sections at the 41st DOK.fest Munich. Regina Schilling is also nominated for the VIKTORIA DOK.international Main Competition, the festival's international main competition award. Outstanding films, selected in advance from across the sections, compete for this award. Producers whose works are running in this competition and who can prove that Germany is the country of production receive reference funding from the German Federal Film Board (FFA) in the amount of 50,000 reference points.
Films across all sections are also nominated for the two other main prizes, VIKTORIA DOK.deutsch and VIKTORIA DOK.horizonte – Cinema of Urgency. A total of 15 prestigious prizes will be awarded at this year's festival. The award ceremony will take place on 16 May at the University of Television and Film Munich.
Around 100 films will be shown in Munich cinemas at the 41st DOK.fest München. The festival begins on Wednesday, 6 May, and ends on Monday, 18 May, with a closing event. The films can be viewed online and throughout Germany at DOK.fest München @home from 11 to 25 May.
Further information on this year's edition will be available in our press releases over the coming weeks.
Photo of Ingeborg Bachmann: Herbert List/Magnum Photos/OSTKREUZ Archive
