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



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