Kasseler DokFest

14 November, 2015 - 13:30
Kleines Bali, Kassel
talk+screening

Courtisane is honoured to be invited by the great Kasseler Dokfest (in the context of their 'Internationale Filmfestivals und ihr Profil' section) to present a program and talk about our festival and programs throughout the year. We are screening Ruben Desiere's impressive film Kosmos in dialogue with Four Walls by Johan van der Keuken.

 

The complete program of Kasseler Dokfest will be available by the end of October at www.kasselerdokfest.de

Vier muren

Johan van der Keuken
,
NL
,
1965
,
16mm
,
b&w
,
22'

Four Walls is a cinematographic essay about the housing shortage in Amsterdam in the mid-sixties. The film makes a visual connection between physical and mental space. Van der Keuken: ‘With the camera, I can only show a house hunter’s outside, but what matters is his inside, how life inside him is decaying like a pile of rotten lettuce.’

Kosmos

Ruben Desiere
,
BE
,
2014
,
DCP
,
colour
,
61'

It will be difficult to continue this story of mine. I don’t even know if it is a story. It is difficult to call this a story, this constant ... clustering and falling apart ... of elements ...” (from Cosmos by Witold Gombrowicz)

Up until November 2013, the Gesù convent in Brussels was home to around 250 people including a number of Roma families originating from Slovakia. Over the months leading up to their impending eviction, Ruben Desiere worked with a number of the inhabitants to create a film. Kosmos is loosely based on the book of the same name by the Polish author Witold Gombrowicz. It focuses on the family of Kevin Mroč who had been living at Gesù for three years, and also features two newcomers, Mižu Balász en Rastjo Vaňo.