Bernhard Sinkel

For over half a century, the filmmaker Edgar Reitz, one of the signatories of the Oberhausen Manifesto and a pioneer of epic film narration, has explored, as a practitioner and theoretician, the rules and limits of cinema, which he always seeks to break and extend in new ways. One example of his tireless search and research are the Geschichten vom Kübelkind, which he co-directed with Ula Stöckl in 1969/70, 22 absurdly funny, subversive and anarchistic short films of different lengths, which consciously oppose all conventions, with incredible success. The films remain unrivalled in their Dadaistic inventiveness.

Julius Caesar may have met his match in Cleopatra, the young queen of Egypt.

Eva is a single freelance painter. She is in love with a married man. She pretends that she never waits for him, and if he suddenly turns up she acts as if she is surprised. In reality the unresolved relationship is making her so depressed that her work is the only thing that is saving her. In an attempt to break her addiction she enters into a relationship with another man. But the balance she is looking for eludes her, as now she has to choose between the two. But Eva can't: she wants to have an entire life, not part of one. In the form of a sort of filmic diary, Eva now attempts to sort out the puzzle, which is her life.

Feature-length interview film with Bernhard Sinkel about his four-part film 'Fathers and Sons' (1986).