Over seven years, director Thomas Heise revisits five young actors from his 2007 Berlin staging of Heiner Müller’s “Anatomy Titus.” At irregular intervals, he asks them to film their everyday lives and articulate their hopes. The footage is deliberately fragmentary and non-linear: there is no smooth narrative or causal thread. Among them, 22-year-old Sven, whose apprenticeship, naval stint, dishonorable discharge, and failed relationships leave him convinced “nothing comes next”, becomes the focal point of this long-term observation. Invoking Müller’s own outsider declaration - “I am a Negro” - the film offers a stark, uncompromising portrait of aimless youth while Heise probes his role as documentarian.
2020 • 6.4 ★
