Fundevogel

Summary

Foundling-Bird

"Why didn't you leave the twelve white flowers alone? Those were your brothers – now they've all turned into ravens." Brothers Grimm "The Twelve Brothers"

Fragments of fairy tales alternate with observations made by children. Documentary and staged sequences run into one another. There is no break and no contradiction between reality, the children’s behaviour and the imagination, all three are tightly intertwined. "To remember in images means to abolish the censorship that thought expressed in words exerts a little bit. […] During filming, we hiked through the marshland, through the woods. The children played at something and we recorded it. Or we suggested something to them and they played along. Actually, the opening scene was supposed to include fear and eeriness. The kids weren't afraid in the bunker though; they'd played there often before; they tore down the walls that were still standing. This underground, labyrinthine bunker used to be a concentration camp and a supply depot during the war. Above a door, you could still barely read: 'And if it means we'll go through hell, we'll stand by Hitler just as well'." Claudia von Alemann

Source: 68. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)