Images of the Absence

When he was twenty, German Kral moved from Buenos Aires to Berlin, to the country of Rilke’s letters, Nietzsche’s Zarathustra and Wenders’ films - the country where he feels at home. As a beginning filmmaker, however, he reaches a deadlock, and he decides that to overcome it he will first have to tell the story of his family in Buenos Aires, which was never really a family. On old photographs, he looks for signs of love on the faces of his father and mother, who got divorced a long time ago. He interviews them both about their marriage, which was unhappy, and about their relationship with their parents. Kral’s father is a solitary, passive man, who preferred to study and paint quietly instead of doing odd jobs around the house or talking. His mother is a lively woman, who had hoped for a handy, more gregarious husband. After many frank questions and candid, obliging answers, Kral can only conclude that a bond between these highly different people was a difficult, if not impossible task. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)