Pandoras Vermächtnis

Georg Wilhelm Pabst was one of the world’s most well respected filmmakers during the 1920s and early ’30s. Described as a staunch socialist auteur, Pabst became something of a black sheep during the 1940s, when he agreed to work for the Nazi industry – the circumstances under which are still up for discussion. In cinematic ‘politics’, Pabst is a left-wing love affair gone dreadfully bad, with few feeling inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Angela Christlieb approaches Pabst from an angle that feels eerie: his family. There’s his writer-actress-artistic confidante wife, Trude, who’s present solely through words and archival images. Then some of their children and other relatives who are still around and willing to discuss this seemingly mysterious man make an appearance too.

Pandoras Vermächtnis is less about the meaning of Pabst in cinema and more about the imprint of his life and work on those closest to him. It’s fascinating to hear the letters Georg and Trude wrote to one another when they were young, it becomes mesmerising when his next of kin discuss him in detail, separating the myths from their precious recollections. Pandoras Vermächtnis looks at film history from a different angle – how rare and precious!

– Olaf Möller

Trailer

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