THE CITY NAMED DESIRE is a portrait of a city as seen by temporary Berliners. The documentary depicts those who came and stayed and those who passed on through – artists who report on their life, work and their personal experiences. It accompanies the beneficiaries of DAAD grants to the places that they experienced as liberating or oppressive, places that fascinated them and which had a significant influence on their work.
THE CITY NAMED DESIRE recounts stories from the forty-plus years of post-war history, from the days of the Cold War to the arrival of a new Berliner after the fall of the Wall.
The various »villages« that make up Berlin, with their specific atmospheres, are introduced and depicted almost casually alongside the various personalities. The film’s pageant interweaves the lives and stories of internationally renowned artists into a kaleidoscopic image of Berlin that looks inwards from outside and offers magnified images of proximity and alienation.
These are the raucous and restrained stories of constraints and freedom, of flight and yearning, miniatures of world history set in a place that has learnt to flaunt its difference to the rest of the world.
Participating artists are: Yuri Andrukhovych, Petr Borkovec, Clemens Gadenstätter, Andrew Horn, Clemens Klopfenstein, Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven, Imre Kertész, Liza Lim, David Moss, Péter Nádas, Paul Nizon, Damián Ortega, Arvo Pärt, Antonio Skármeta und Stephen Wilks.


DVD obtainable at jana cisar filmproduktion
info@cisarfilm.de