The Death of My Mother
directed by Jessica Krummacher
Preview Screening
Germany | 2022 | 135 mins
Narrative Feature
Synopsis
Juliane is 35 years old. Her mother Kerstin is 64 years old and desperately ill. Kerstin lives in a care home. Now she wants to die. Juliane accompanies her mother. All of the friends take leave of her. A death of thirst and hunger is slow. Daughter and mother are infinitely close to each other, physically and mentally. Until something divides them: the awaited death.
Credits
Written & directed by: Jessica Krummacher
Artistic Associate: Timo Müller
Dramaturgical Supervisor: Franz Rodenkirchen
Cinematography: Gerald Kerkletz
Editing: Anne Fabini
Sound: Johannes Schmelzer-Ziringer
Production & Costume Design: Renate Schmaderer
Make up: Anke Ebelt
Casting: Susanne Ritter
Editorial: Cornelia Ackers
Producers: Tobias Walker, Philipp Worm
Produced by: Walker+Worm Film
In association with: Klappboxfilme
In co-production with: Bayerischer Rundfunk
Sponsored by: The Commissioner of the Federal Government for Culture and Media, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Deutscher Filmförderfonds, Kuratorium junger deutscher Film
Key Cast: Birte Schnöink, Elsie de Brauw, Christian Löber, Gina Haller, Nicole Johannhanwahr, Thomas Wehling, Susanne Bredehöft, Wolfgang Rüter, Johanna Orsini
Screening schedule
This film is available to watch online from October 17th—23rd 2022 (from the United States only)
Language
German with English subtitles
Genre
Narrative Feature
About Jessica Krummacher
Jessica Krummacher first studied Politics at the Ruhr University in Bochum and later at the University of Cologne. Meanwhile, she worked freelance for film and television productions and lived in Cologne. In 2001, she took up studies in Media Arts at the HFG Karlsruhe and continued to work in film in Munich at the same time. From 2002, she studied Documentary Film & Television Journalism at the HFF Munich.
In 2006, she co-founded the production company Klappboxfilme with filmmaker Timo Müller, with whom they produced his graduation film MORSCHOLZ and her graduation film TOTEM. MORSCHOLZ was awarded the Förderpreis Deutscher Film “Best Director” at the Filmfest Munich. Her film TOTEM premiered at the 68th Biennale di Venezia in 2011 and screened successfully at numerous festivals. TOTEM was nationally and internationally released in cinemas and nominated for the German Film Critics Award.
Her screenplay MORDOGAN – BIRTH received the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award at the Rome Film Festival in 2012 and was supported by the Turkish-German Development Fund. In 2016, the film had to be cancelled for the time being due to the unclear political situation in Turkey.
After completion of the two films THE RED MOUNTAIN by Timo Müller and THE DEATH OF MY MOTHER by Jessica Krummacher in early 2022, Jessica Krummacher is currently working on the development of a new feature film with the working title BÜNDE (AT) based on an idea by Timo Müller.
Director’s Statement
My mother became seriously ill in her mid-50s. The diagnosis was a rare, incurable and always fatal disease in the brain. After a short time, she was completely locked in her body. And although she could hardly speak, her thinking was almost always unrestrictedly clear.
After a few years in the nursing home, my mother decided she no longer wanted to live. She gave up eating and drinking. She died after more than two weeks at the age of 64 in a hot summer. My sister and I accompanied her in this process.
Only slowly but then inexorably the “outside” disappears, it dissolves, the forces dwindle, the woman loses herself more and more inside. Or in the distance, wherever it is? Where it goes, what comes? It disappears. Death takes over space. Longed for and yet too soon. Silent screams. Tears. Only one remains of the two in the room. The daughter. The woman is gone.
THE DEATH OF MY MOTHER is a tragedy. A tragedy that I have experienced in this way. The film shows very little up and down, it goes down – and that is what interests me about this narrative. Nothing seems to be moving, but the world keeps turning.
It is about Kerstin and about Juliane, mother, and daughter. About their feelings and perceptions. It is not about the why, about reasons or explanations. They no longer exist in this world.
In my film I transform the “documentary – autobiographical” into the world of art, fictionalize without losing the brutality of the real events. For this, I have sought words and images that describe the oppressive, hopeless situation.
A chamber play on one side, life outside on the other. It quickly becomes less and less, smaller. Little by little it blurs. Inside: Confinement. Almost like a theater stage, so rigid. Images are dominated by emptiness and a bit of darkness. The feeling of the inevitable imposes itself and remains.
The location supports the claustrophobia in the chamber play. Partly a metaphorical place: in Germany, in the Ruhr area, my home. It becomes a mirror of the souls that have to endure there together, waiting for death. An emotional and at the same time physical universe; an intimate meditation on dying. Poetics and realism at the same time.
It is a sad story, but it is not exclusively about sadness. It is also about an emotional declaration of love to life and very personally to my mother. A tender, always surprisingly cheerful hymn to life and death: how fantastic it is that we are alive. How fantastic that body and mind communicate and respond to each other. Fantastic and cruel at the same time.
I am asked why I want to tell the story. I cannot put it into words and I am afraid to, but I believe that the story absolutely has to be told and that it should be seen.
At some point, it is all about death. The death that comes after life. The death that scares me.
