Müpa Filmclub - Far and yet near (In Weiter Ferne, so nah!, 1993)

If you've seen Wim Wenders' film Berlin Above the Sky (1987), you'll obviously wonder what this sequel can do, because it's not a comic book movie where the heroes are just going on new adventures. No doubt, our heroes - angels and men - are involved in new adventures, but the world has changed a lot in the meantime. Especially in Berlin. Because, for example, the Wall has come down. And here we are in the Wall. Gorbachev is no longer Secretary General, Willy Brandt is dead. Times have changed.

One plane of Far and Yet Near is a lyrical meditation on the nature of time. In fact, one of the strong characters, Emit Flesti (Willem Dafoe), embodies time - as the anagram of his name suggests: Time itself. But this subtle philosophising is constantly interrupted by concrete time. Ageing, growing up. Age. Historical age too, from which strange and frightening things sometimes emerge. Time gone by, stepping into the present with its uncleaned footwear. History. If there is any, since Fukuyama's famous essay on the end of history was published in full in 1992. This time, too, Wim Wenders insisted on mixing real and fictional characters in his story. Gorbachev and Peter Falk are as real as Lou Reed, but it's a cleverer touch when the cameraman of The Sky Over Berlin turns up as the captain of a ship named after him. What's really surprising, though, is that Far and Yet Near turns into an action film at one point. However, it is in this action film segment that the idea of people and creatures of different origins and roots working together is most emphasised. The Cannes jury loved it, the critics not so much. Let's have a look and talk about it!

In German, with Hungarian subtitles.

Pre- and post-screening discussion in Hungarian.