Jelena Ilić’s father was convicted of aggravated assault and spent many years in a forensic psychiatric clinic. The director salvaged shovelfuls of debris from his apartment, including his artistically staged self-portraits. This image runs like a thread through the entire film, which, despite its very personal focus, is a psychologically mature debut bursting with creative inspiration. The film tells of reversed parent-child roles, of finding poetry amidst chaos and of exploring the intricacies of an illness.
Ilić conveys the disturbed world of her psychotic father through the drawings they create together, which she then animates: the two still share a comic book whose pages they alternately fill. »Others have dinner together, and we have our joint book,« says Ilić confidently but not without a hint of melancholy. She evokes in her film the impulse to convey experiences through art using this pictorial form of communication, one she already assimilated in childhood. Such excursions to another level and the accompanying elements of situation comedy add new layers of complexity to the genre of autobiographical documentary film – a popular choice among young filmmakers in recent years. Ilić’s film moreover captivates the viewer with its refreshingly punk undertone. Her father’s expressionist painting, situated somewhere between Outsider Art and the Neue Wilde, has evidently left its mark on his daughter’s aesthetic, which counters the clean-lined digital world with a large measure of defiant post-post-grunge DIY.

Following the screening, there will be a discussion with film producer Melanie Andernach (Made in Germany) and content creator Pocket Hazel.
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