Volker Sattel

A man and a woman are robbed, several people are after the money.

The Tara is a river on the outskirts of Taranto whose waters are believed to have healing properties; bathing there is a tradition for the inhabitants of the city. Starting from this bucolic place, Volker Sattel and Francesca Bertin take us on a journey through a territory where myths clash with reality and where so-called “progress” has taken a heavy toll on nature and society.

Within the closed world of the nuclear power industry one of humanity's most compelling struggles has taken place. Germany was at the vanguard of the nuclear power industry but now the walls are coming down. It was the country's greatest scientific endeavour but now all are due to be decommissioned, thanks to popular fear and the power of democracy.

The portrait of a house without supporting walls. A bold dome made of concrete, an open space – right in the middle of the bizarre rock formations of a rugged coast made of reddish granite. The house belonged to actress Monica Vitti and director Michelangelo Antonioni. The emptiness of the “cupola” and the deserted quality of the site are the starting point for speculating – seemingly at random, figures wind up in the image and enter the dome, and even today, the utopia of an alternative concept of living seems to float above its form.

A cinematic essay on Berlin that succeeds in capturing complex contexts in an almost casual way. The concise images, torn from the amorphous stream of time, form a collage about urbanity, masses and forlornness. In this way, the wonderfully composed film emancipates itself from its outwardly hackneyed theme and, conversely, gives the object of observation back some of its innocence.

A man and a woman are robbed, several people are after the money.

A man and a woman are robbed, several people are after the money.

The Tara is a river on the outskirts of Taranto whose waters are believed to have healing properties; bathing there is a tradition for the inhabitants of the city. Starting from this bucolic place, Volker Sattel and Francesca Bertin take us on a journey through a territory where myths clash with reality and where so-called “progress” has taken a heavy toll on nature and society.

Within the closed world of the nuclear power industry one of humanity's most compelling struggles has taken place. Germany was at the vanguard of the nuclear power industry but now the walls are coming down. It was the country's greatest scientific endeavour but now all are due to be decommissioned, thanks to popular fear and the power of democracy.

The portrait of a house without supporting walls. A bold dome made of concrete, an open space – right in the middle of the bizarre rock formations of a rugged coast made of reddish granite. The house belonged to actress Monica Vitti and director Michelangelo Antonioni. The emptiness of the “cupola” and the deserted quality of the site are the starting point for speculating – seemingly at random, figures wind up in the image and enter the dome, and even today, the utopia of an alternative concept of living seems to float above its form.

A cinematic essay on Berlin that succeeds in capturing complex contexts in an almost casual way. The concise images, torn from the amorphous stream of time, form a collage about urbanity, masses and forlornness. In this way, the wonderfully composed film emancipates itself from its outwardly hackneyed theme and, conversely, gives the object of observation back some of its innocence.