Watch the film on Vimeo!
Martina is handicapped. To be able to live her everyday life at home, she takes personal assistance. When Sandra starts working for her, the two slowly get to know each other.
Sandra performs the movements that Martina wants to do but cannot. Martina gives the instructions, Sandra follows. She has to keep the balance between respectful restraint and stabilizing presence. Martina on her part has to accept the fact that she is dependent on help. She constantly struggles to control her everyday life by herself.
The extreme intimacy that we experience reveals the hardness of the situation between the tenderness of the gestures. It is a fragile dance between being close and being distant, a dance that demands a lot from the two protagonists.
CREW
Directors: Lenna Sophie Fichter, Janis Westphal
Cinematography: Nina Kunz
Editing: Marisol B. Lima
Production: Sevenpeaks Films, Lenna Sophie Fichter
Distributor: Sevenpeaks Films
World Sales: New Born Short Film Agency
Lenna Fichter studied social sciences, cultural mediation and documentary film directing in Hanover, Hildesheim and Berlin. During a residency in Senegal she discovered her enthusiasm for the cinema. Since then she has been working on the question of how to change perspectives through the camera to make the unseen visible. The subjects of her cinematic work are the perception of bodies, relationships and most of all the fascination for people who silently fight struggles of everyday life.
Janis Westphal studied journalism, communication sciences and history as well as global history in his master’s degree in Gießen and Berlin. In 2011 Janis did an internship in Tanzania and there he found his way to film through a small documentary film production.
He later worked for a television production company for three years developing new content for international broadcasters, including ZDF, WDR, and Discovery Channel. From 2014 to 2018 he studied directing for documentary and fictional films at the filmArche. During this time Janis Westphal founded the SEVENPEAKS filmmakers collective in 2016, a production collective for free cinema productions and commissioned work for NGOs and sustainably operating companies. His short films BOLZMANN and DREYFUS DREI (co-directed with Ella Dreyfus), completed in 2021, were shown at many international film festivals and – in the case of the latter – in museums and cultural institutions. In 2023, he completed his feature film debut with the documentary ONE HAND THE OTHER (co-directed with Lenna Sophie Fichter). In the same year, he completed FLUT UND EBBE, the second part of his short film trilogy about symptoms of “masculinity”, mental problems and the repression of these.
Filmography Janis Westphal:
Flow and Ebb
Tragicomedy, 20 Min, 2023
One Hand the Other
Documentary film, 30 min, co-directed with Ella Dreyfus, 2023
Bolzmann
Tragicomedy, 30 Min, 2021
Dreyfus Drei
Documentary film, 30 min, co-directed with Ella Dreyfus, 2023
Journeys of Suburbia (AT)
Documentary film, 20 min, co-director, in completion
Family Strings
Documentary film, 30 min, co-director, in completion
Haus der Trinker
Dokumentarfilm, 90 Min, in Vorproduktion
Provinzbühne
Dokumentarfilm, 40 Min, in Entwicklung
Lausitz Limbo
Tragicomedy, 30 min, in development
Lenna herself worked as an assistant to Martina for two years. She is deeply impressed by Martina’s strength of mind, but at the same time she knows what this work demands. It soon became obvious that we would co-direct the film because Lenna’s personal approach and Janis’ view from the outside complemented each other very well.
In the confinement of Martina’s apartment, we follow the silent negotiations between the two protagonists in everyday life with long, observing camera shots. The challenge of the permanent closeness between the two women becomes tangible. With the slow rhythm of the story we also express the special temporality in Martina’s life. Each movement takes an extremely long time and is based on the ritualized interaction between Sandra and Martina. The result is a dance that is reflected in the partly close-up, partly distant visual language.
FESTIVALS
03.2023 Kalakari IFF, India
08.2023 Ierapetra IFF, Crete, Greece
09.2023 Welcome Home IFF, Germany
11.2023 Manhattan Independent Film Festival, USA
12.2023 First Time Filmmakers Sessions, GB
12.2023 Lift-Off Filmmaker Sessions, GB
12.2023 Cinemaking IFF, Bangladesh
01.2024 Martinique IFF, Martinique, France