Karin Bandelin

Wenn Mengele kommt...

AUSCHWITZ
The arrival at the ramp after a long train trip in a cattle waggon, exit, chased and rushed, the destination of the arduous journey:
THE SELECTION
The SS officer, dark, his penetrating gaze upon the people, the finger pointing right or left determines life or death. Families separated, torn asunder in the one decisive moment, desperate hopes. The continuation: armed with just one pistol the death angel walks through the camp, dreaded by thousands, nobody ever attacks him. The fascination of power, of the overwhelming evil. Carl Laszlo has survived as only a few, he has written a book about his stay in the camp, his text finds its narraters here, 11 languages exemplary for the multitude of the voiceless. Mengele is present yet anonymous, one of the victims is concealed under the mask, can you be perpetrator and victim at the same time? Anyone can be everything!!!
TODAY Which venue today, the selection continues, in survival or perishing, being saved or drowned, starvation or overfeeding, being in or out. The club Berghain as a symbol for the power of Kerberos, shattered hopes, only the beautiful singer can overcome the spell.

Der Störer

Boxed up, no motion, no back door in sight,
In the Stasi control centre the conservation of the Status Quo by all means,
All motion suppressed, any change prohibited.
Life does not tolerate this situation, persistently buzzing against the deathly silence,
Assassinations cannot always succeed.
Behind the separating pane support is shouting
One day the prison door will open
Fly into freedom!

Der Lauf des Lebens

a walk through all age levels and life phases, the grouping of persons rather random or yet belonging to a master plan, some accompany each other long, others just have a short moment of togetherness, even children are coming and going, in the end only memory stays in an empty room

Achtung, Sie verlassen jetzt West-Berlin

The separation of the city of Berlin into a part this side of the wall and a sector beyond is permanently experienced by the inhabitants of the political and geographic topos Berlin.

Even if everyday´s life is organised with the respective parts of town fulfilling the immediate needs, the optical and well-organised presence of an almost invincible frontier cannot be ignored.
Through this frontier, this wall, a few routes are leaving small channels of connection between the two parts of this town.
Names like Brücke der Freiheit" (Grenzübergang Bornholmer Straße), "Übergang Chausseestraße", "Invalidenstraße", "Checkpoint Charlie" (Übergang Friedrichstraße), "Übergang Prinzenstraße", "Oberbaumbrücke", "Sonnenallee", mark places where humans have to pass the gaps in the wall before midnight after visiting the other part of town.
Watching the people on their passage between the two Berlins is the subject of the film. To catch the nightly moments of insecurity in the no-man's land between the two military blocks, surrendered to an abstract power, is the theme.

Warten und Hoffen

On four screens the fate of endless waiting that life consists of is displayed. Travelling is a focus of this situation, where hours of sitting or standing around usually finally are rewarded with "finally it starts", whereas Happy Ends of every-day life rarely arrive after such short phases of uncertainty, abandonment, and helplessness in the face of higher powers, where the life-span extends like chewing gum, and the moments of acting and satisfaction are a mere kick-down between waiting and hoping.

Popocatépetl

The Aztec Sundance in the face of the Great Power, the all-controlling, all-threatening vulcano: can the incantation of the sun save us from the fiery eruption of the night with her ashes and blackness? Is it possible for a human being to unite with the cosmic power and thus be saved? Or is annihilation always the strongest power?