The Sound of Insects - Record of a Mummy

In his new movie, the versatile Swiss filmmaker develops an incredible story which begins with the chance discovery in the middle of the woods of a 40-year-old man’s mummified remains. The dead man’s detailed notes reveal that just a few months previously he decided to commit suicide through self-imposed starvation. As a starting point, the director turned to Until I Am a Mummy, a novel by Japanese writer Masahiko Shimada, which treats actual events drawn from the found text. This evocative reconstruction of the last weeks of a mysterious man’s life contains a summary of Liechti’s typical means of expression. Stylized images – products of the artist’s imagination – accompany the essayistically presented literary work. His never-ending search for originality of form often approaches experimental cinema, but without losing sight of the storyline. For Liechti, “documentariness” is the foundation upon which he builds a fascinating kind of film that is tough to classify.