Germany / Switzerland,
1995, 80 min
Shown in 1996
CREDITS
- dir
-
Nicolas Humbert, Werner Penzel
- prod
-
Nicolas Humbert
- scr
-
Nicolas Humbert, Werner Penzel
- cam
-
Chilinski
- editor
-
Giseka Castronari, Nicolas Humbert, Werner Penzel
- source
-
Cine Nomad
- premiere
-
North American Premiere
-
COMMENTS
Nicolas Humbert, Werner Penzel in person.
OTHER
In the beginning was not the word but the wordless, that which has not been trapped and devoured by the categorizing imperatives of language. It is there, in the ineffable flux and transience of lives in motion, of a film on motion, that Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel set us adrift. The fruit of two years of wandering with Taureg nomads in the southern Sahara, with the performers of the French circus Cirque O in Europe and with the American poet and philosopher Robert Lax, Middle of the Moment takes us on its own nomadic voyage into the spirit of contemporary nomadism. Eschewing explanation, commentary or generalization, this film is a lyrical, open journey in which we are given the opportunity to trace our own paths and reach our own epiphanies. Exquisitely shot in black-and-white, the film concentrates on the small and often surprising moments of these marginalized lives: watching a fire, rehearsing a performance, digging for water, dismantling tents, having an argument, birthing a camel, waiting out a storm, reciting a poem and, always, moving on. As in Step Across the Border (SFIFF 1991), their wonderfully circuitous and whimsical portrait of musician Fred Frith (who also did the music for this film), Humbert and Penzel have again made a film which resonates with the spirit of visual and musical improvisation and humbly embodies the constant movement of things.
—Irina Leimbacher
FACTOID #125
According to the November 29, 1959 San Diego Union, The Village on the River was the first Dutch feature ever shown in the U.S. (at the Third San Francisco International Film Festival).
