Gonzalo is a farmer of the old school who lives with his family in Castile. To be called an agronomist would probably be an insult to someone like him. His way of managing things is in many ways the opposite of the all-devouring economisation of all areas of life. But he only chose this existence as a resistance fighter half-freely – the other half was forced upon him. First of all by a tradition that’s effectively in his bones. Then by a deep rootedness in the soil that nourishes him. And finally by a sturdy philosophy that makes him say such simple and clear things like: “When everyone was throwing money out of the window and lighting fires with banknotes, our kind was considered outdated and backward. Now that most people have lost everything the others are no better off than us, and we are more or less the same.”

Empathetic “Schadenfreude” und a surrealist sense of humour are essential parts of Gonzalo’s rustic world. Günter Schwaiger’s affectionate long-term observation of this world could also be seen as cinematic medication to strengthen our immune system against the temptations of consumerism and agricultural capitalism – defences our mind urgently needs.

Ralph Eue

Once psychiatric institutions were regarded as the marginal zones of civilisation where the “deranged” people were excluded (or locked away) from the community of the “healthy”. Today this is considered an untenable stereotype, at least in theory. However, there is a lack of images suitable for internalising such assumptions in practice and permanently. Constantin Wulff, a dedicated representative of Direct Cinema, and his cinematographer Johannes Hammel spent one and a half years at the child and adolescent psychiatry of the hospital of Tulln in Lower Austria, observing the human and institutional processes set in motion when children and adolescents suddenly get off track. How does anyone end up in such an institution? How does one become a “case”? Even if such a “case” can only be worked out in any meaningful way when people look beyond the process and re-focus on the human being.

With admirable confidence Wulff balances his film between rash chumminess and cheap distance – always trying to do justice to the very complex interactions playing out in before his lens. Also at the focus: institutional work as a permanent balancing act between gentleness and pressure, routine and emotional involvement, regulations and improvisations.

Ralph Eue