In 1948 Paul Celan, a concentration camp survivor and esteemed post-war poet, met Ingeborg Bachmann, a fellow writer whose father was a Nazi. By 1971, Celan had committed suicide, before which the erstwhile lovers met on just one more occasion. However, they had amassed almost twenty years of long-distance correspondence. 

Inspired by fact and fiction, where document and literature intersect in the letters, Ruth Beckermann and writing partner Ina Hartwig (a literary agent) embarked on a screenplay based on the exchanges. The result is a cross between observational documentary and essay film, with a deceptively simple approach: two actors (Plaschg and Rupp) read the letters in a recording studio. Applying a documentarian’s intuition to this set up, Beckermann keeps her camera rolling between readings and into cigarette breaks. Capturing Plaschg and Rupp’s palpable on-screen chemistry, Beckermann succeeds in evoking a contemporary ambulatory romance from the historical source material. 

- Jemma Desai

The Dreamed Ones is screening in the lead up to Holocaust Memorial Day 2017, which takes place on Friday 27 January.

The film will be followed by a short film: CONVERSATION WITH RUTH BECKERMANN (UK 2016) dirs. Daniella Shreir & Julia Brown, 11 mins

Made by Another Gaze during the last BFI London Film Festival the interview covers various topics including Ruth’s early work in film, her experience of antisemitism in Vienna, the advantages and disadvantages of being a woman as a filmmaker and the making of The Dreamed Ones.