Berlin-Jerusalem (Berlin-Jérusalem)

1989 | Fiction | Runtime 89' | 35 mm | Colour

DVD/Video

Amos Gitai: Exile
5 DVD NTSC Zone 1
Facets (USA)
Subtitles: English
Berlin-Jerusalem
1 DVD NTSC Zone 1
Facets (USA)
Subtitles: English
Berlin-Jérusalem
1 VHS Secam
K-Films (France)
Subtitles: French
Kippur / Berlin-Jerusalem / Esther / Kedma / Promised Land
4 DVD PAL Zone 2
Globus United (Israel)
Berlin-Jerusalem / Esther
1 DVD PAL Zone 2
Globus United (Israel)
Coffret La Trilogie de l'exil : Esther / Berlin-Jerusalem / Golem, l'esprit de l'exil
3 DVD PAL Zone 2
Arte Vidéo (France)
Subtitles: French
Box Gitai 1 : Esther / Berlin-Jerusalem / Golem, l'esprit de l'exil
4 DVD PAL Zone 2
RaroVideo (Italy)
Subtitles: English, Italian

World sales / Distribution

France
K-Films
7, rue Commines
75003 Paris
France
Tel.: +33 (0)1 42 74 70 14
Fax: +33 (0)1 42 74 70 24
E-mail: kfilms@noos.fr
Web: www.k-films.fr

Two women, the German Else Lasker-Schüler and the Russian Mania Shohat, are each travelling to Jerusalem, a mythical but also very real city that they must confront... Based on the biographies of these two women, one of the first Russian Zionists and a German Expressionist poetess, the film moves back and forth between the dim cafés of Berlin in the 1930s and the hills of Jerusalem. Berlin Jerusalem or the history of crushed utopias...

"In Berlin Jerusalem, the city [of Jerusalem] organises the narrative: that is where the film's two heroines want to go, where they meet each other and where the narrative ends. In this film, Jerusalem appears in all its chimerical aspects. It is a mythical city, Else Lasker-Schüler's poetic city, but also the city of the first Jewish migrants, an Arab city and a contemporary megalopolis. Its appearance in the end and its mirage, which appears from the beginning, bind the entire narrative into parallel layers (...). Reality erupts into the film as something sudden and lethal, like the gunshots, the explosions, the chaos (...) A conventional world of ruins is transformed into a convulsive world of violence."
Mikhail Iampolski, "The Road to Jerusalem", in "The Films of Amos Gitai", edited by Paul Willemen, BFI, London, 1993

Cast Liza Kreuzer, Rivka Neuman, Markus Stockhausen, Benjamin Levy, Vernon Dobtcheff, Veronica Lazare, Bernard Eisenschitz, la Pina Bausch Company Screenplay Amos Gitai, Gudie Lawaetz Cinematography Henri Alekan, Nurith Aviv Sound Antoine Bonfanti Music Markus Stockhausen Editing Luc Barnier Production design Marc Petit Jean, Emanuel Amrami Costumes Gisela Storch Production Agav Films, Channel Four (UK), La Sept (France), Nova Films (Italy), Rai2 (Italy), Orthel Films, NOS (The Netherlands) Executive producer(s) Laurent Truchot Producer(s) Ilan Moscovitch, Amos Gitai

Festivals
Venice : Biennale di Venezia / Mostra d'arte cinematografica 1989 - In competition. Critics' Award
Istanbul International Film Festival 1989 - Grand Prix