Credit: MCULT
Luxembourg co-production Ingeborg Bachmann - Journey into the Desert recently had its world premiere at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), which is taking place in the German capital from 16 to 26 February 2023.
Ingeborg Bachmann - Journey into the Desert (German title: Ingeborg Bachmann - Reise in die Wüste; co-produced by Luxembourg's Amour Fou), directed by Margarethe von Trotta (Germany) and starring Luxembourgish actress Vicky Krieps, is one of three Luxembourg co-productions featured at this year's Berlinale, the other two being: Iranian director Sepideh Farsi's The Siren (co-produced by BAC Cinéma) and Italian director Enzo D'Alò's A Greyhound of a Girl (co-produced by Paul Thiltges Distributions).
On Sunday 19 and Monday 20 February 2023, Luxembourg's Minister of Culture, Sam Tanson, travelled to Berlin for this year's Berlinale, where she attended the world premiere of Ingeborg Bachmann - Journey into the Desert. The film depicts the tumultuous love story between Austrian poet and author Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-1973), played by Luxembourg's Vicky Krieps, and Swiss author Max Frisch (1911-1991), played by German actor Ronald Zehrfeld. The film is a co-production between Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg (Amour Fou - Bady Minck and Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu); the film was co-financed by Film Fund Luxembourg (up to €30,000 for writing/development and €1.5 million for production) and involved various local actors (Vicky Krieps but also Marc Limpach and Nickel Bösenberg) and other professionals (from the original music by André Mergenthaler to the costumes made by Uli Simon).
In the framework of this world premiere, Minister Tanson also had an informal exchange with her Austrian and German colleagues, Andrea Mayer (Secretary of State for Arts and Culture) and Claudia Roth (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture), respectively, on the adaptation of legal frameworks for audiovisual production in their respective countries. "We need films, and we need co-productions - this is something we do a lot in Luxembourg - for the exchange that this induces, because it puts professionals and audiences in touch with each other," said Minister Tanson.
Luxembourg's Culture Minister also visited the Saarländische Galerie in Berlin, an art centre which has hosted an exhibition of Luxembourg artists every year since 2016. For this year's edition, Kultur | lx - Arts Council Luxembourg has launched a call for projects for galleries to propose a programme in the Saarländische Galerie during Berlin Art Week in September.
Minister Tanson ended her trip with an encounter with Luxembourg film professionals, artists and residents at a reception hosted at the Embassy of Luxembourg in Berlin.
