Vergiss mein Ich

  • 95'
  • Germany
  • 2014
Undiagnosed meningitis erases successful academic Lena's biographical memory. The medical diagnosis: retrograde amnesia, i.e. she recognises no one, including herself. She knows the words, but they no longer have meaning. Terms like rain, love and anger are empty.
She has to reshape her 'self' like a first-time actress learning her lines. Her husband Tore tries to teach her everything again with 'love and patience'. The last thing he makes Lena accept is that she loved him and that their joint past has the meaning it bears for Tore.
In Lose My Self, Jan Schomburg, who also had a female lead see life's certainties erased before her very eyes in his prize-winning debut feature Above Us Only Sky (2011), utilises Lena to examine how identity is shaped. To what extent is it determined by environment?
In Lena’s prosperous, progressive bourgeois milieu in which total self-fulfilment seems a god-given right, the brain-mangling concept of no longer having memory leads to more universal questions about identity, freedom and choice. Maria Schrader plays the helpless, yet in her personal vacuum almost invulnerable, Lena intensely, yet ironically and humorously.
Director
Jan Schomburg
Premiere
World premiere
Country of production
Germany
Year
2014
Festival Edition
IFFR 2014
Length
95'
Medium
DCP
International title
Lose My Self
Language
German
Producers
Claudia Steffen, Christoph Friedel
Production Company
Pandora Film Produktion
Sales
The Match Factory GmbH
Screenplay
Jan Schomburg
Cinematography
Marc Comes
Editor
Bernd Euscher
Production Design
Cora Pratz
Sound Design
Andreas Hildebrandt
Music
Tobias Wagner, Steven Schwalbe
Cast
Maria Schrader, Johannes Krisch
Director
Jan Schomburg
Premiere
World premiere
Country of production
Germany
Year
2014
Festival Edition
IFFR 2014
Length
95'
Medium
DCP
International title
Lose My Self
Language
German
Producers
Claudia Steffen, Christoph Friedel
Production Company
Pandora Film Produktion
Sales
The Match Factory GmbH
Screenplay
Jan Schomburg
Cinematography
Marc Comes
Editor
Bernd Euscher
Production Design
Cora Pratz
Sound Design
Andreas Hildebrandt
Music
Tobias Wagner, Steven Schwalbe
Cast
Maria Schrader, Johannes Krisch