Press Kit METANOIA
Experimental film. 15 min
Black & White. Surround Sound. Germany / Hungary. 2022
Director. Producer. Sounddesign: Nadine Poulain. Más Media Production Kft.
Audio Postproduction: Niklas Kammertöns. NEUTON BERLIN
LOGLINE
The experimental film Metanoia is a reflection on Europe’s / the West’s struggle with its very core: its faith. A battle of the soul and always: Notre Dame!
SYNOPSIS
The experimental film Metanoia is a reflection on Europe’s / the West’s struggle with its very core: its faith. The film’s interest lies in the ability to seek a higher truth and overcome any simplistic and momentary certainties attached to the self.
It features a selection of written and spoken words, taken from Friedrich Nietzsche, Rainer Maria Rilke and Michel Mourre alongside an imagery of despair, accusation, humbleness and worship.
Considering the Ancient Greek origin of the word metanoia: méta, meaning beyond and noeō, meaning understanding, a space of intensity and self-surrender opens up. It is a dance of extremes, a battle of the soul and always: Notre Dame!
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Originally from Berlin, Nadine Poulain has studied fine art and filmmaking in London and New Zealand. After graduating from university, she spent extended working periods in Serbia and Iceland. In the past Poulain has created cinematic installations, whilst at present she works with experimental film and photography.
Focussing on natural phenomena and recently also on linguistic elements, Nadine Poulain combines a variety of unusual and elaborate postproduction techniques. The aspects of the sublime and the otherworldly strongly inform her work. Of further importance is the tension of a reductive and formalist approach to aesthetics and an emotive and dramatic loading of such. The use of sounddesign, that at times touches musical spheres, is essential hereby.
In 2021 Nadine Poulain has set up the company Más Media Production, which is active in Budapest and Berlin. Her films have been shown internationally at film festivals, such as the Berlinale, Cork Film Festival, Matrovski Festival and Filmfest Dresden, as well as in various gallery and museum exhibitions.
DIRECTOR’S FILMOGRAPHY
- 2023 One. 16 min Serbia / Hungary
- 2022 Metanoia. 15 min. Hungary / Germany
- 2021 The Opinion of the Others. 85 min. Germany
- 2014 Nocturne. 11 min. Germany
- 2013 Sky Lines. 10 min. Serbia
- 2010 Prelude. 12 min. Germany
- 2010 360°. 10 min. Germany
- 2008 Rome by Night. 5 min. United Kingdom
- 2007 Bergen – Mar del Plata. 12 min. United Kingdom
- 2006 Between You & You and Me & Me. 1 min. United Kingdom
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
My interest in making the film was to reflect on the question of faith in the Western world in a dialectical manner. Rather than taking a side (atheist / believer), my aim was to create an intense, yet playful (internal) debate. Repetition, juxtaposition (between words, as well as between words and imagery) and the phenomena of the after image are applied in order to shift, reverse and open up an array of thoughts and meaning.
I have chosen to work with quotes from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (The Gay Science), the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke (Book of Hours) and the French historian Michel Mourre (Notre Dame performance) due to their profound and varied engagement with the subject matter.
Whilst the loss of religion and the ultimate fate of nihilism was the theme that occupied Nietzsche over his fairly short life, he remained at large a harsh critique of the Christian faith. In opposition to that stands Rainer Maria Rilke. Rilke, rejecting a dogmatic and institutionalised approach to religion, developed an affirmative, yet highly personal, attitude towards God and the question of faith.
Interestingly, Michel Mourre embodies both positions. From early on in his life he was drawn to Christianity and later temporarily entered into a monastery. However, his 1950 Notre Dame performance, in which he, in a Nietzsche-like manner, spoke of the death of God and accused the Catholic Church, seems to have been a culmination of his spiritual and institutional doubts.
There is no question that the West by and large could be described as post-Christian, rather than Christian, and yet it seems less certain that the implication of the loss of religion has ever been fully understood. The mourning of the death of God might already seem alien and absurd to the progressive mindset of Modern Man, as it raises the question of loss, and therefore implies an understanding of what it was that had been lost (or replaced).
TRAILER
A very mysterious and multilayered artwork – actually an ideal basis for meditation.
David Engels
REVIEW
The ancient Greek term metanoia describes a process from the religious practice of the antiquity. It is a process that is connected to repentance, an inner conversion and therefore a newly gained worldview.
The film Metanoia by Nadine Poulain can be described as an associative accumulation of moments of such a process. Two pieces of text are the binding foundation for this: Rilke’s Book of hours and a quote form The Gay Science by Nietzsche. Nietzsche’s emphatic warning of nihilism meets the poetic and visionary experience with God from Rilke. Poulain accomplishes a synthesis of those two moments. With great sensitivity and accuracy, she reconstructs stadiums and inner experiences of a spiritual-philosophical crisis of orientation, without immediately gaining safe grounds.
A continuously changing circle of black and white images and monolithic words guide the view deeper and deeper into his own association. The theoretical term metanoia therefore becomes an existential, yet accessible, experience. This experience goes far beyond the reading in a dictionary. The reoccurring quote from Zola (used by Michel Mourre in this film): ‘j’accuse’ is having a pivotal role hereby, as it bridges the gap between the paleness of the theoretical-philosophical thought and the practical realization of a reorientation in a world that deserves to be accused.
Martin Mucha & Parviz Amoghli 2022 Translated from German
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