Such rogues, these umbrella poets. Let their dernière in the “Capitol” cinema begin with the song “Umbrella”. umbrella. In German: umbrella. And then the young students Sabrina Eichhorn and Anika Wenzel, with their soft voices and guitar sounds, perform Rihanna’s megahit so gently and engagingly that no one in the audience made a face like Drei Tage Regenwetter.
The musical part, however, was only an accompanying part of this evening in the Unterschleißheim district of Lohhof: The focus was on the poetry clips, the short films, which the umbrella poets – pupils from the Carl Orff High School and students – and their director Sophie Kompe in the past had shot for weeks and months. They were now shown en bloc, it was the second season of their series “Turn through Thursdays”, most of which had previously been shown in the “Capitol” before the main film.
The canvas is something different than Youtube
“The big screen is something different than YouTube,” stated cinema operator Stefan Stefanov, who supported the project without hesitation and also helped organize this dernière (French: “last” – counterpart to premiere). “I’m grateful to be able to give you a stage,” he said to the young filmmakers. In general, many words of praise and moving were spoken that evening. Sophie Kompe mischievously announced the young protagonists as “acclaimed language athletes – umbrella poets” and Benjamin Straßer, musician and organizer of the “Lichtblicke” concerts in Unterschleißheim, was responsible for giving a small eulogy at the beginning.
Why he? “Because I’m officially your biggest fan,” he explained and raved about the development of the young poets, who were also awarded the SZ’s Tassilo Culture Prize last year. They have “grown up” and are enormously “changeable” in their “texts about Unterschleißheim and the world”. How impressively they now know how to convert this into running pictures could now be seen at this local film gala, where Unterschleißheim’s mayor Christoph Böck (SPD) was also present and stated that this dernière was a premiere for him. “This is my first dernière,” he said to his wife Petra as he took a seat in the back row.
Well, Lucie Berkholz’ “Waiting” demonstrated right away that a film can also be poetic without words through the visual language: for example, when a melancholic wind brushes through the hair of the longing-sad actress in the course of the approaching S-Bahn. Christopher Bertusch’s “My Application”, on the other hand, is characterized by (self-)ironic esprit and a pretty final punchline, Viktoriya Tetko’s “Unter Wasser” by metaphorical flow.
The second film is called: “The sky over Ukraine”
A second film of hers was later shown, “The Sky over Ukraine”. Tetko has Ukrainian roots and speaks in both languages, among other things about the desire to scream at what is happening there, but: “The mouth is empty” because “freedom is silent”. Despite all the sadness, she hopes for a happy ending: “Peace conquers cruelty.” Neda Bayat also found a deeply touching form of language and image in “Nostalgie”. Quirin Weber and Bianca Schüssler unfolded the magic of rhyme and rhythm most clearly in their works. Weber reflects on life as a game of dice and asks: “Is a god hiding by chance?”
Schuessler wants to disarm the “eternal discomfort” in existence with love: “The world doesn’t have to be so gloomy and lonely, and all the chaos ends in a… kiss.” The young artists always find beautiful shots, sometimes drones are also used. Of course, from time to time the imperfect, spontaneous flashes through, not every (speech) image fits. But almost always the film is the work of an inspired collaboration between various members of the umbrella poets, including Kompe and Straßer, who is responsible for the sound. Marie Berkholz, who won a prize at the youth film festival in Upper Bavaria last year with the turn-through film “Teenager”, also demonstrated a sensitive and ambitious imagery in “Straßenkreidebilder” – the young artist also enriched the evening with her song interpretations.
In addition, there were always short interviews with the respective filmmakers – including Jannika Bauer and Gabriel Richter, who in their entertaining films each brought subtle humor and comedy to the fore in their own way. Sophie Kompe’s impressive, professionally designed film “Schön oder schön” marked the cinematic conclusion. In fact: It was nice.
The films can also be seen on Youtube (keyword: umbrella poets)