Undine Sommer
Visual Art ︎︎︎
Birth II
At the former border between East- and West Berlin soil and voices are falling incessantly from the sky. At the Lake of Constance an embryonic sac bursts to the announcement of the fall of the Wall. Between all the noise of the patriarchal world, a granddaughter just wants to put her ear on her grandmother’s rug and listen to her dream about her dead father.
EXT. SOIL IS FALLING FROM THE SKY - DAY
In the evening of the fall
of the Berlin wall,
my mother and father and sister
were watching the news.
My mother got up
to go to the bathroom.
When she returned,
my father said:
The wall fell.
My mother said:
My water broke.
CUT TO:
EXT. PURPLE FLOWERS SWAYING IN THE WIND - DAY
CUT TO:
EXT. FALLEN SPARROW WITH SPREAD OUT WING LYING ON PAVEMENT - DAY
CUT TO:
INT. GRANDMA’S BEDROOM - DAY
GRANDMA’S BED
My grandmother dreamt
about her dead father.
WINDOW
He stood by the window
and looked out.
GRANDMA’S BED
My grandmother lay awake in her bed
and stared at the back of her
freshly resurrected father.
WINDOW
He wore a black suit.
I think he always wore a black suit
and never paid his daughter for decades
of labour in the family’s butcher shop.
GRANDMA’S BED
Ja bist du zurück?
Well, are you back?
WINDOW
Er schwieg.
He did not answer.
GRANDMA’S BED
Ja, wie war’s?
Well, how was it?
WINDOW
Frag lieber nicht.
Better not to ask.
BARE LEGS ON THE CARPET UNDERNEATH GRANDMA’S BED
Yesterday,
after six months of being unable
to move,
my grandma ripped out
her catheter,
got up by herself
and left the bedroom.
video. hd video 16:9. colour & sound. one channel. 7:08 min. haibach/berlin. 2018.
Writer, Director, Cinematographer, Editor: Undine Sommer
"Falling Voices" composed and mixed by Hyemin Jung (Joreng)
World Premiere:
2019
Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival,
Hawick, UK
German Premiere:
2019
Kasseler Dokfest,
Kassel, DE
Images © Tianhui Li