E www.brunoschulz.org

BILDER FINDEN - FINDING PICTURES
(Germany 2002, 106'15" min., color, 35 mm, 1:1.85, stereo)
a film by Benjamin Geissler

Synopsis

„ ... Poetry happens when short circuits of sense occur between words..."
Bruno Schulz

Bruno Schulz, the world-renowned writer and painter, a Polish Jew, experienced the terror of German occupation in the Galician city of Drohobycz in 1941/42. He tried to survive by painting frescoes for Viennese SS Hauptscharführer Felix Landau's children on the walls of the villa Landau had taken possession of. Bruno Schulz was shot and killed by the SS on 19 November 1942.
Despite an intensive search after the war was over, these frescoes were never found.
On 9 February 2001, documentary filmmaker Benjamin Geissler rediscovered the lost pictures.
In May 2001 in a secret operation, Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial has smuggled out of Ukraine fragments of this murals, sparking an international controversy. (New York Times, front-page June 20, 2001 „Artwork by Holocaust Victim Is Focus of Dispute"; and NYT Quote of the day, June 20, 2001 „The picture is destroyed and nobody will know the whole picture" Benjamin Geissler; Time Magazine, July 16, 2001 „Whose Art Is It Anyway?"; —Ukraine – Jewish Art NPR - All Things Considered, Monday, July 9, 2001 ...)
Yad Vashem has claimed the moral right to preserve the works. Ukrainian and Polish officials say their removal was a crime. But what say Jews from Drohobycz ... and what say Jews from Drohobycz in Israel...
The search for the murals, their discovery and a time after the robbery has been meticulously documented on film by Benjamin Geissler.
After 60 years Geissler has also preserved some other unique and never published testimonies about Bruno Schulz and his last days.

From Germany to Drohobycz, from the Ukraine to Vienna, from Austria to Australia, from Jerusalem to Paris and Stuttgart: FINDING PICTURES is in a multiple senses a family story, - between father and son, men and women - which depicts different generations' ways of experiencing the world and connects them in a film montage. So history becomes contemporary history in a poetic sense.
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More information about "Tribute to Bruno Schulz" New York, November 19th, 2002, 6:00 pm under: Center for Jewish History

F FINDING PICTURES / Bilder Finden / Crew List / Credits

F Ostatni rok życia Brunona Schulza - Rozmowa z Benjaminem Geisslerem twórcą filmu dokumentalnego o Schulzu, "Odnaleźć obrazy", którego premiera odbędzie się 19 listopada w Nowym Jorku. Rozmawiała Magdalena Michalska (Gazeta Wyborcza, 20-10-2002)

F “Знайти, втратити і віднайти” Розмова з Беньяміном Ґайслєром, кінорежисером (Львівська газета 05.02.2003) 8 Rozmowa z Beniaminem Geislerem, reżyserem filmu „Znaleźć obrazy” o odnalezieniu nieznanych fresków Bruno Schulza w Drohobyczu - Rozmowę przeprowadził Jurko Prochaśko

F Canadian Premiere: Montreal Jewish Film Festival [Monday, May 12, 2003, 9:30 PM - Cinématheque québécoise]

F Polish Premiere: Cracow Film Festival [May 28, 2003, 5:00 PM - KIJÓW cinema]

F KINO: Co się wydarzyło w Drohobyczu - Tadeusz Lubelski (Maj 2003 (5/432)

F MORE LINKS