Film and Literature: Kinship in Storytelling

Interview with director Regina Schilling and Sandra Hüller about the festival's opening film INGEBORG BACHMANN – JEMAND, DER EINMAL ICH WAR, by Adele Kohout

This year, the writer Ingeborg Bachmann would have turned 100. Director Regina Schilling has taken this anniversary, as well as the enduring relevance of her works, as an opportunity to make a hybrid documentary about this literary icon. Together with actress Sandra Hüller, the director not only brings the figure of Bachmann to the screen, but also manages to make her literary work come vividly to life. Regina Schilling, director of our opening film INGEBORG BACHMANN – JEMAND, DER EINMAL ICH WAR, and actress Sandra Hüller, who portrays the writer in the film, discuss a woman who was far ahead of her time and why, against her will, she has become the figurehead of various debates today.

Ms Schiling, your film combines documentary material and dramatized scenes to create a distinctive portrait of Ingeborg Bachmann. How did you arrive at this open and hybrid format and what was it about the format that particularly appealed to you?

Regina Schilling: The biggest challenge with a film about a writer is, of course, to “accommodate” their texts. Bringing together literature and film is complicated. And sometimes it’s tedious. Because there isn’t much archive footage of Bachmann, from the outset I had to find some other way for her texts to shine. After Sandra Hüller came on board, I was so inspired while working on the script that the hybrid format almost created itself. Because, of course, I knew how unbelievably well Sandra could “read” literature
(we’ve known each other for a long time from lit.COLOGNE). She can make even the most difficult texts understandable and transparent because she is both an intuitive and intellectual actress. She feels and thinks at the same time – at least that’s how it appears to me. Then, you could say I ploughed through Bachmann’s writing and created a montage of text while picturing Sandra making coffee, for example, or driving. And something just clicked when I was sitting at my desk.

A question to you both: Sandra Hüller gives Bachmann’s writing a great physical presence and she was also significantly involved in the development of the project. How did you develop this approach together?

Sandra Hüller: The majority of the work was Regina’s. I was in the fortunate position of being able to say what I was capable to do and what I wasn’t. For example, it was clear to me that I didn’t want to speak or read anything aloud on screen because this isn’t about watching an actress “do something well.” It’s more of a collaborative process of exploration.

Regina Schilling: It was precisely this very clear vision of Sandra’s - that she did NOT want to perform or speak as Ingeborg Bachmann – that led to her literally having Bachmann “in her ear” in all the scenes that we filmed. She is really listening to her texts in every situation. I didn’t have that in mind from the start; the idea and method came from Sandra. Before the shoot in Rome, she recorded all the texts and they were played back to her through an earpiece during filming. I listened to them too. This was a totally
new experience for me and it was fascinating to be watching a monitor while filming and at the same time listening to the voice over.

Ingeborg Bachmann constantly reflected her life and writing in each other whilst at the same time she rejected any clear-cut biographical interpretations. How did you deal with this tension in your film?

Sandra Hüller: I think we took it seriously and allowed many contradictions to stand without passing judgement on them.

Regina Schilling: While I was working – whether it be on the script, during the shoot or later in the edit – I had something Bachmann said about her novel “Malina” in my mind: “Malina is not so much an autobiography, it is an intellectual exploration of the self but it does not involve the recounting of personal stories or similar embarrassments.” For me, our film is also more of an intellectual exploration… Our shared approach was always to maintain a certain discretion and respect for Ingeborg Bachmann’s privacy.

Ms Hüller, what was your starting point in approaching this character? Were you more interested in embodying a historical figure or bringing an attitude or voice to life?

Sandra Hüller: It was clear to me that I didn’t want to “act” as Bachmann in that sense. It was rather about the process, which is made visible, and about great respect and issues that affect many women or female writers.

Ms Hüller, you approach Ingeborg Bachmann in the context of adocumentary that makes strong use of archive material and literary sources. What role does acting and the portrayal of a character take in such a cinematic structure? Do you see this approach as fundamentally different from your work on fiction films?

Sandra Hüller: No, the approach is no different from that in a conventional feature film. In this film, acting takes up exactly the space that is needed. Working with Regina and the cameraman Johann Feindt is enormously liberating, which I really enjoy. We came together and trusted each other. Nothing was forced or had to be a certain way. It was a matter of listening. It also really helped that I was always able to have the texts that we had recorded beforehand in my ear while we were filming more everyday things in the flat in Rome.

The film touches on the key themes of loneliness, power dynamics and interpersonal dependencies that have shaped this year’s festival programme. Was it important to you to consciously make Bachmann interpretable as a voice in current social debates?

Regina Schilling: That is precisely what is so fascinating about Ingeborg Bachmann: in her prose work in particular, she was so visionary. She explored all the issues that are being discussed in society today in her stories and in “Malina.” Language as “an attempt to murder reality” is a one of her quotes from 1960 and it sums up all the debates we are having about gender today. She has written about “mansplaining,” about femicide, and about how the patriarchy makes us all sick – men and women alike. The way she wrote about illness and trauma is also unbelievably relevant today. That was my biggest concern with this film: to show that Bachmann’s tests are incredibly modern and contemporary and were completely misjudged by the critics back then. Ingeborg Bachmann would have been 100 years old this year.

What, in your view, makes her such a relevant figure today? Is it more the literary occasion of the anniversary or is it also the topical relevance of her thoughts on language, power and relationships.

Regina Schilling: I suppose I have already answered this in my response to the previous question. I have engaged with Ingeborg Bachmann’s books since I was 20. I come from literature originally and have grown into documentary film over time… In this respect, the anniversary has been a great gift for me: the chance for literature and film to come together.

Sandra Hüller: For me, it’s both. The birthday is certainly a great occasion and attracts attention. The themes in Bachmann’s texts are still relevant today and also affect me personally.

Many thanks to the filmmaker Regina Schilling and the actress Sandra Hüller! Watch INGEBORG BACHMANN - JEMAND, DER EINMAL ICH WAR at DOK.fest Munich 2026. You can find all the screening dates here and the entire 2026 film programme here.