RHINLAND. FONTANE

Bernhard Sallmann is working on a film project in several parts dedicated to Theodor Fontane and his “Ramblings through Brandenburg”. RHINLAND. FONTANE is the second part and follows ODERLAND. FONTANE. The filmmaker’s interest is historic on the one hand, which emerges in the precise recital of passages from Fontane’s book “Die Grafschaft Ruppin” (Ruppin County): peat cutters’ working conditions, Prussian militarism, capitalist speculators, the author’s self-reflections or the drastic experience of the Thirty Years’ War. On the other hand, Sallman’s concept of a strict registry of places and landscapes in long, static shots with location sound is indebted only to the present day: long distance roads crisscross a marshy landscape; secluded lakes open up in the beech forest.