The 41. DOK.fest Munich opens with film about Ingeborg Bachmann

The 41st DOK.fest Munich celebrates its opening on May 6 at Deutsches Theater with INGEBORG BACHMANN – JEMAND, DER EINMAL ICH WAR. Regina Schilling's hybrid film combines fictional scenes and documentary elements. The multi-award-winning actress Sandra Hüller plays the writer Ingeborg Bachmann (1926–1973). The film will celebrate its world premiere at DOK.fest Munich. It will be released in cinemas across Germany on June 25, Ingeborg Bachmann's 100th birthday.

In a poetic search for clues, director Regina Schilling lets the audience witness the creation of art: Sandra Hüller approaches the life of Ingeborg Bachmann on an imaginary day and lends her words a haunting physical presence. In an artful interweaving of improvised scenes, archival treasures, interviews, and Bachmann's own texts, the film traces the central phases of the author's life – from her childhood during the war in Carinthia, her rise to stardom in Group 47, to her final days in Rome. Her path is marked by her complicated relationships with Paul Celan, Hans Werner Henze, and Max Frisch, and an unyielding struggle to find her own radical voice between public fame and existential crises.

Director Regina Schilling, born in 1962, lives and works in Cologne and Berlin. She has made her award-winning documentaries in collaboration with the production company zero one film. Among other accolades, she has won the German Television Award, two Grimme Awards, and the 3sat Documentary Film Award at the Duisburg Film Week. Her latest work is a German-Austrian co-production between zero one film and Navigator Film. The film is being distributed by Weltkino.

INGEBORG BACHMANN – JEMAND, DER EINMAL ICH WAR is part of the series “HerStory – Seven Films about Fearless Women”, one of the 15 thematically structured series at the 41st DOK.fest Munich. Regina Schilling is also nominated for the VIKTORIA DOK.international Main Competition, the festival's international main competition award.
Around 100 films will be shown in Munich cinemas at the 41st DOK.fest Munich. The festival begins on Wednesday, May 6, and ends on Monday, May 18, with a closing event. The films can be viewed online and throughout Germany at DOK.fest Munich @home from May 11 to 25.

Tickets for the opening film will be available soon.