DOKU.ARTS
Zeughauskino Berlin
10.09.–12.10.2014
Fedora
The film producer Barry “Dutch” Detweiler set out in search of the legendary film diva Fedora, who is living in seclusion in a remote villa on a Greek island, surrounded by strange contemporaries. When he finally managed to meet her, he encountered a youthful looking woman whom he tried to persuade to perform in his new film, promising a grand comeback. However, Fedora’s housemates resist Dutch’s courting of her: the aging Countess Sobryanski, the bizarre plastic surgeon Dr. Vando, and the distrustful nurse Balfour try to shield the diva from the outside world and declare she is sick and her career is definitively over. But Fedora reveals to Detweiler that she is being kept prisoner. A short time later, she is dead. But was she really the woman that Detweiler was looking for?
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder, who was born in 1906 in Sucha (then-Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire, in today’s Poland) and died on 27 March 2002 in Los Angeles, California, was an American scriptwriter, director, and producer. He worked as a scriptwriter in Germany and France, but when Hitler came to power he was forced to emigrate to the US because of his Jewish heritage. Wilder’s work had a formative influence on comedic and dramatic film. He made film history with works such as Some Like it Hot, Irma la Douce, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, and Witness for the Prosecution. He received a total of 21 Oscar nominations for his writing, producing, and directing work.