Verhängnis
Germany,
1994, 76 min
Shown in 1996
CREDITS
- dir
-
Fred Kelemen
- prod
-
Christian Hohoff, Fred Kelemen
- scr
-
Fred Kelemen
- cam
-
Fred Kelemen
- editor
-
Fred Kelemen
- cast
-
Sanja Spengler, Valerij Fedorenko
- source
-
Cine Electra
-
COMMENTS
Fred Kelemen in person.
OTHER
The landscape of post–Cold War Europe is thronged with displaced persons—on the move and desperate, with no place to go. Shot in hi-8 video and transferred to 16mm through the crudest of home methods, its color deliriously tweaked along the way, Fate marries contemporary technology to silent film expressionism. The film is composed of roughly a dozen sequences, all intricately choreographed and stunningly shot with a handheld camera, often in a single take. The narrative, if one can call it that, takes place in a single night. Two people are drawn together through a series of events that seem as improbable as they are inevitable. Dire things happen, some of them grotesquely funny: people drink themselves into oblivion, people who have nothing struggle for power with people who have a little bit more, a gun goes off and someone dies, someone else is raped. The two protagonists are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning; all one can say is that they’re still on their feet. Desparing and violent, Fate is about people who even at their most abject, still desire to make human connection. If Fate bears more than a passing resemblance to Bela Tarr’s epic Sátántangó (SFIFF 1995)—Kelemen has worked as a cameraman for Tarr)—it is a also unique vision by the most talented filmmaker to emerge from Germany in many years.
—Amy Taubin, Village Voice
FACTOID #7
Governor Pat Brown welcomed the crowd at Opening Night of the Festival October 30, 1963. Other attendees included George Peppard, Willie Mays and the governor’s wife Bernice; it also happened to be the couple’s 33rd wedding anniversary.
