Handbikemovie

Disdain of death is probably the motivation. Through his sickness (multiple sclerosis), Martin Bruch is tied to his wheelchair -a wheelchair he moves forward with hand pedals and in which he launches himself into the hectic traffic of our contemporary metropoles. Through a camera fitted to his helmet, the viewers share his dangerous journey as if they were in a roller coaster, which may make this film the most electrifying experimental documentary that was ever made. Bruch does not restrict his adventurous (and extremely dangerous) undertaking to his home base in Vienna. He also allows the throbbing and roaring traffic of New York’s Times Square, Paris and London to swallow him up. A fragile man in a very fragile vehicle who carelessly rolls off steep slopes. Moving obstacles such as the escalators in a department store are not even the smallest of hindrances. The world is obviously not properly equipped for the physically challenged. Bruch’s tricycle wheelchair is not allowed on the motorway, but pavements and bicycle paths are also officially forbidden terrain. There just don’t happen to be any tricycle paths. It is a stern yet humourous film. The film is entirely made up of unedited shots (56 of them) of the reckless hand cyclist. Unpolished, juddering images that are hard cut and hence form a lively conceptual film. A rediscovery of cinema. (GjZ)