Schlafsand

Presented only in theatres.

This film is part of the program Carte Blanche Rien à voir : Filmer le vide, l’absence, l’invisible.

The earth trembles. The air shimmers. Heavy metal vocals seductively lull us into perpetual slumber. Sheltered beneath white shrouds, a rushing river flows. Does the cold, rolling tide wash away the soft, sticky sand of sleep? Smoke in the distance transfigures the view. A reflection on our being, acting and refusing to realize it. A journey in images, from mountain peaks to a dying Swiss glacier, to the city, to the depths of the Hambach open-cast mine, where the engines of coal excavators clatter ceaselessly.

Director’s statement:
Schlafsand is an object or a reflection of a subjectively perceived reality and feelings in times of climate change, war and energy crisis. A reality in which we can have the feeling that something is fundamentally out of order.
One can be amazed at the amount of facts that have to be gathered to draw attention to a problem. And despite the evi- dence, as society we tend to only ever react when the threat is right on our doorstep.
With this film, I aim to depict moments in pictures that can be overwhelming upon first sight, yet simultaneously represent the everyday life of different places that remains consistent- ly unchanged. This daily life raises lingering questions and prompts me to wonder how long we will remain slubering, immersed in our self-created loneliness, before realizing that we are all in the same boat.
-Elias Bötticher