Vivere

Colour, 35 mm
Germany, Netherlands, 2007, 97 min
EP – European premiere
Section: Another View

Synopsis

On Christmas Eve young Antoinetta runs away from home with her musician lover. Her older sister Francesca sets off to find her and, on the way to Rotterdam, meets hopelessly abandoned Gerlinde. This creates an encounter between three women on the run, protecting one another as well as themselves. “The three of them could almost be one woman in different watershed moments in their lives. Their unfulfilled desire and loneliness make kindred spirits of them,” says the director. “Christmas Eve with its festive atmosphere that others enjoy in a circle of loved ones becomes a day that jolts their lives. The film tells us to rouse our dreams and desires rather than let them die out. The screenplay is structured as three stories filmed in different cinematographic styles which underscore the points of view of each of the protagonists. At a certain point however they intersect and become a single storyline shared by them all.”

About the director

Angelina Maccarone (b. 1965, Cologne) started out writing song lyrics for the German pop star Udo Lindenberg and other singers before her artistic ambitions turned to film. She began as an assistant director and screenwriter. Her films Everything Will Be Fine (Alles wird gut, 1998) and An Angel’s Revenge (Engel schlägt zurück, 1998) won a number of awards. Her original film Unveiled (2005), which was presented in competition at the 2005 Karlovy Vary IFF, also achieved international acclaim and won the Hessian Film Award. A drama followed soon after, Hounded (Verfolgt, 2006), which was awarded a Golden Leopard at the IFF in Locarno. Maccarone also works as a television director and teaches direction at the Academy of Film and Television in Berlin. Vivere is her sixth work, again made in cooperation with D. O. P. Judith Kaufmann.