Ich will dich – Begegnungen mit Hilde Domin (2007)

• 84%
• 2007
• Documentary
• Anna Ditges

A young film-maker discovers Hilde Domin's lyric poetry and decides to get in touch with the celebrated poetess herself. She encounters a highly unconventional 95 year-old in an apartment full of books, roses and memories - with a life story that mirrors the last century. Hilde Domin, born in 1909, tells openly about her turbulent and troubled life: of her childhood as an assimilated Jewess in Cologne, of more than two decades spent in exile, of the return to post-war Germany and her late career as a writer. For the first time in front of a camera, she speaks about Erwin, the love of her life, and about her loneliness in old age. Carefully observing, challenging and listening to her protagonist, the author manages to capture even the most sensitive topics on film, in direct and highly expressive images. Anna Ditges, born in 1978, visited Hilde Domin regularly over a period of almost two years, until the old lady's death in February 2006. The two women shared everyday experiences and went travelling together - to poetry readings, on holiday, and through Domin's memories. The outcome of these numerous encounters is an uncommonly intimate and touching documentary: "I want you", a filmic statement as precise and haunting as the famously straightforward poetry of Hilde Domin.