★

This film’s ambition is both precise and lofty: an exploration of cinematic history consisting solely of scenes of starry skies. No landscapes, not even trees or roofs. A cloud or a satellite perhaps. No subtitles either. The excerpts retain their original – often kitsch or bombastic – soundtracks and are in chronological order. Initially, the iconography is pretty naive, but later viewers are presented with a galaxy of stylistic approaches and technical solutions. The more recent, the more realistic.

Besides a trip through film history, ★ is also a conceptual work that elicits questions concerning our relationship with time and space. Moreover Lurf forces us to reflect on human aspirations. Yet his own ambitions are also exceptionally high: he wants to make an unending director’s cut, providing a new, longer version each year.

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