Isa Hesse Rabinovitch
Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch – Das Grosse Spiel Film
Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch – The Movie Game
Switzerland 2009
directed by
Anka Schmid
screenplay
Anka Schmid
cinematography
Daniel Leipert, René Baumann
music
Stephan Wittwer, Guy Maget
editing
Marina Wernli
producer
Franziska Reck
production
Reck Filmproduktion GmbH, Schweizer Fernsehen, Radiotelevisione Svizzera di Lingua Italiana, 3sat
format
35 mm, barvni/colour
running time
52'
»A film is like a love affair, from which a child is born, a new film.« Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch was a pioneer in experimental film. As a female director, she was also an interesting phenomenon on the Swiss male-dominated scene. All her life, she followed her intuition without reservation, thus maintaining her independence and unconventionality. In her way of work, she never used a script, but translated all her complex ideas into film language with the help of storyboards and collages. Because of her unusual approaches, she was often overlooked when it came to state funding in her homeland, but was a respected filmmaker abroad.
The documentary by Anka Schmid combines extensive archive material, clips from Hesse-Rabinovitch’s work as well as interviews with her close friends, relatives and co-workers, who, through their own memories, co-create the portrait of the artist.
The clips reveal a unique visual language, while the archive footage enables an insight into the historical events and topics that grew and developed together with the artist – the influence of war, women’s emancipation in the film business and male domination.
The 52-minute film is thus a biography of the artist; in the short amount of time, it rounds off a rich and complex structure of Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch’s thought and work. It is a collage of thoughts, photos and footage from her life and clips from her more renowned film works, such as Spiegelei (1969), Julie from Ohio (1978), Sirenen-Eiland (1982), Body, body blues (1986), Geister & Gäste (1989) and Das grosse Spiel des Lebens (1995). Through the eyes of director Anka Schmid, these elements are skilfully intertwined, resulting in a creative and unconventional portrait of the extraordinary Swiss author.
»I started making films in the illusion that I could combine and execute everything, all my interests: painting, making music, acting, writing, cutting, applying the techniques.« (Anka Schmid)
Anka Schmid
Anka Schmid was born in Zurich in 1961. Between 1984 and 1990, she studied at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin. In 1988, she spent a year in Hopiland (USA) where she documented the life of the Techqua Ikachi. Since 1991, Schmid has been working as a successful feature and documentary film director and scriptwriter in Switzerland and Germany.
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»I started making films in the illusion that everything that interests all together and execute it: paint, make music, act, write, cut, apply the techniques.« (Anka Schmid)
