Stroke /Am Seidenen Faden/

It is 1998: An artistic couple comes to New York. He negotiates a deal with a record company, while she is making a documentary. Half a year after their wedding, 33 year old cellist Boris Baberkoff suffers severe multiple strokes and ends “locked in,” a prisoner of his own brain. He can hear but is unable to move or communicate; his chances of even partial recovery appear slim. In desperation, his wife Katarina intuitively takes up her cam. She records her husband’s hard and even slow healing process in intensive care, rehabilitation centres and everyday life. She puts her own fears and experiences in this film, a mix of dreams and inner monologue. The result is an intricate and very private autobiographical recording of a couple that, under difficult circumstances, tries to preserve its love and creativity.

Goethe-Institut Prag presents Lepzig Festival of Documentary and Animation Films. Guest: Claas Danielsen, the director of the festival.