Projektionen: The Geometry of Hope

The media artist Daniel Laufer has read the novella Die Judenbuche by Annette Droste-Hülshoff and taken motifs from the text. He has turned them into an atmospheric film. He adopts a perspective that does not appear in the novella: The Geometry of Hope focuses on the widow of the murdered Jew Aaron and tells of her mourning process. Decades later, she and her now grown-up son are still busy remembering their murdered father.
Almost incidentally, Daniel Laufer's film also portrays Jewish life between town and country in East Westphalia-Lippe in the late 18th century. An important part of the film was shot in the half-timbered house of the Jewish merchant Soistmann Berend, who was murdered in 1783. The file on this real murder trial was written by the uncle of the writer Droste-Hülshoff. The texts of the file became the model for her own literary work.
The Geometry of Hope touches on these connections and creates a space for remembrance. In autumn 2022, the CfL showed the film as a multi-screen installation in Hall B at Hawerkamp. You can now see it at Digitale Burg as part of the Projektionen series.