Ingeborg Bachmann - Jemand, der einmal ich war

A cinematic tribute marking the 100th birthday of the famous writer, featuring Sandra Hüller, Ingeborg Bachmann, Max Frisch, Paul Celan, and Hans Werner Henze. Now playing at the Tilsiter Lichtspiele.

In a poetic journey of discovery, director Regina Schilling invites the audience to witness the creation of art: Actress Sandra Hüller explores Ingeborg Bachmann’s life over the course of an imaginary day, lending her words a powerful presence. Through 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, to her rise as a star of Group 47, to her final days in Rome. Her journey is marked by her complicated relationships with Paul Celan, Hans Werner Henze, and Max Frisch, as well as an unyielding struggle to forge her own radical language amid public fame and existential crises.

On the occasion of Ingeborg Bachmann’s 100th birthday, Regina Schilling succeeds in creating an approach to one of the 20th century’s most significant writers that is as sensual as it is intellectual. Through Sandra Hüller’s powerful performance and masterful archival montages, Bachmann’s linguistic power becomes immediately tangible on the big screen. A cinematic portrait that celebrates the fragility and strength of an artist who eluded all attempts to co-opt her and whose work retains its visionary power to this day.

www.tilsiter-lichtspiele.de/bachmann