Documentary Films - Out of Competition 2013 / Vaters Garten - Die Liebe meiner Eltern / Switzerland 2013
In the motion picture world, fewer tasks are more difficult than capturing loved ones on film while avoiding superficiality. But Peter Liechti, winner of the Prix ARTE for Best European Documentary (The Sound of Insects – Record of a Mummy), seems to know how to go about it. In his highly personal film he uncovers many things about his parents’ private lives, as well as his own, managing at the same time to be both charming and gloomy.
Documentarist Peter Liechti’s parents have been together for 62 years – long enough to have instituted a daily routine capable of alienating them from one another. But despite the fact that their lives are truly governed by established customs, it doesn’t mean they have ceased behaving toward each other with love or, conversely, the occasional reproach. In his highly personal documentary the director acts at once instinctively and shrewdly, thereby managing to do justice to various nuances in his parents’ characters. Here they represent the archetypes of the obstinate man and the determined woman who, despite their differences, live together happily. Liechti portrays his mother and father with great openness in the segments devoted to their everyday lives, but especially when he gives ear to their old-age complaints. But the overall tone of the film is conciliatory, aided by the way in which he captures their charming, old-fashioned household and their well-established order. Carefully selected music by the likes of Morton Feldman and John Cage furthers the film’s unostentatious rhythm.
93 min / Color, DCP
Director
/ Dir. of Photography Peter Liechti
/ Music Dominik Blum, Tamriko Kortdzaia, Ensemble Recherche a další / and others
/ Editor Tania Stöcklin
/ Producer Peter Liechti
/ Production Liechti Filmproduktion
/ Contact Deckert Distribution
Peter Liechti (b. 1951, St. Gallen, Switzerland) Initially a medical student, he later studied art history at the University of Zürich (1971-79). He established a film club in his hometown and has been actively making movies since 1986. His documentaries have taken awards at the festivals in Locarno, Torino, and Leipzig. Two of his films have been screened in the documentary competition at Karlovy Vary: Lucky Jack (Hans im Glück, 2004) and The Sound of Insects – Record of a Mummy (2009), which was subsequently voted Documentary of the Year at the European Film Awards. He has been a guest lecturer at universities in Zürich, Geneva, Lucerne, Lausanne, and Munich, and has frequently sat on festival juries. His latest work, Father’s Garden - The Love of My Parents, premiered in the Forum section at the Berlinale where it was awarded the Tagesspiegel Readers’ Prize, and also the FEDEORA Prize at the Linz festival.
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