actual
short version of the three-part movie
English subtitles (can be activated via the "Captions" function if they do not appear automatically.)
Trailer
The subtitles can be activated via the "Captions" function if they do not appear automatically.
Open letter
to all who feel committed to anthroposophy. read
(Written for the period from September 29, 2020 to December 31, 2022.)
Film Diary
Background Information, June 28, 2020
After several failed attempts to identify some young actors, even receiving no responses at all and finally one rather rude response saying ‘no’ it became clear to me that this no-budget 2020 project for which we had a story book ready, had to be abandoned.
I myself always go by the motto: if something does not want to manifest one way, then how could it go forward? This position and recognition of ‘not that way’ can now lead the way toward a different possibility. This helps me also to keep a certain clam of soul!
I had received suggestions from various sides to take time and keep working on the project and simply postpone the actual shooting of the film to Spring of 2021. My one and only response to that suggestion was: “This film must be created in the year 2020 or not at all!” This was my inner conviction and I was unable to explain this any further.
I also had considered to let the entire project die. I feel that if one wants something so deeply one also has to be willing to let it go, otherwise it is no longer a free deed.
When after a meeting in Berlin at the end of November 2019 the one and only young actor who to my mind would have been well able to play the main character, had not responded by mid- December and after a further request still remained silent, it became absolutely clear: this is not going to work (not going to go anywhere).
I had at this point already booked accommodation for ten people, but it was now clear within me, things have to be different!
There was an entirely different idea that had lived in me much earlier on bit I had discounted that one again and again as I did not under any circumstances want to appear in front of the camera but behind the scene (so to speak).
What I realised now was that if I wanted this film to be created in 2020, I needed to let go of this inner resistance! And since this had to be so, I took the decision to go with the second impossibility.
So now the bookings were cancelled, and I sat down to edit the story book.
Very soon it was clear that for the new ideas (the new version) the main location had to be Berlin!
I had lived in Berlin for fifty years and knew the city and its places well and all locations for the different scenes literally presented as if by themselves.
At the end of December 2019, I now booked new accommodations for Berlin, this time for six, the seventh person lives in Berlin. The final two filming days were planned to take place in the Harz mountains, and I arranged bookings there for seven.
In January 2020 I had to cancel a seminar and various lectures on ‘Artistic-Biographical-Work’ in Moscow because I fell ill with shingles, a condition I had experienced fifty years ago. In German the word for shingles means ‘a belt of roses’ and that’s how I named my condition. I realized this new hinderance had again to be mastered so to develop the forces for the work that lay ahead of me. The illness turned into a jumping off point!
Between February 17 and 20, 2020 Manuel Linke the camera man arrived and shortly after him Doris Buchrucker, the faithful main character joined us. Both of them endured and accompanied all the unexpected and fast coming turnarounds with great patience and trust. We clarified the new version without already having all details worked out. After this initial conversation I wrote down the new script.
Between March 2 and April 7, 2020, I was off to Russia to deliver various seminars in ‘Artistic-Biography Work’. Later I learned that had I traveled even one day later I would have been forced into quarantine in Krasnodar! In this case seven seminar days would have needed to be canceled! After seven days in Krasnodar I travelled the next seven days near Moscow arriving for a three week stay in Kostroma on the river Volga. After a couple of days in Kostroma the lockdowns began, and we needed up carrying out the course in quarantine. Our work together created a counter point against the passivity ordered by the health department.
My return flight was booked for April 7 but was canceled a couple of days before the time, as were all flights out of the country from April 6. With a great deal of luck I was able to book on a so called repatriation flight with Austrian Airlines to Vienna on the 7th. From there I had to cross the border immediately into Germany, by now wearing a mask, the first time since Moscow. After a twelve-hour train journey, I arrived in Hildesheim on April 8 in pretty much an empty train that arrived with no delay at all as did all Intercity trains in that time!
During April and May I continued to work on the future script.
A scheduled second three-week Russia trip was impossible as now all borders were closed.
By mid-May 2020 we had the film team in place! There was confirmation from Tobias Greiter, first camera assistance; Andreas Thoma and Jakob Lippert were willing to step in for script as well as all other tasks.
On May 28 and 29 the entire team met at Doris Buchrucker’s for the first time and to get to meet each other. It was then and there where we also developed the further basic script together that I then wrote down the following days.
Work on the film was scheduled for Saturday, June 6, 2020. This date had been set since the beginning of January already. Saturday, June 6 became the first day on which up to ten people would be allowed to gather in public spaces outdoors! We were seven people!
The entire film was to be shot outside. During this whole time, we were only once caught in the rain and drenched foot to toe, but no-one fell ill. In fact, this rain created the right mood for what was needed! The weather forecast called for more rain, but we were spared it. We experienced a protective shield around us for the entire time of the shoot. This became a deeply touching experience for me every day!
I arrived in Berlin on June 4, 2020 in order to visit all our locations together with Jorg Zeitler and to figure out the best way to reach them as well as where to park etc.
The team arrived on June 5 in the evening. We met for our first work meeting. I needed and ‘empty’ Berlin for our task. We packed our car at 4 am and drove to the respective locations. All shooting days started at 4 am. The entire team worked with highest discipline, clam and joy. This created a wonderful work atmosphere. We worked until 2:30 pm and by then everyone was spent. But on each following day new creative forces were available again.
The shooting in the Harz mountain
The shooting time in Berlin took place from June 6 to 17, a historical date, 1953!
On Thursday morning, June 18, 2020 we drove to Ilsenburg, Harz.
By 4 pm we visited all locations (in the rain). That evening we gathered to plan the next day. Now Gabriele Radig joined us and accompanied everything in Ilsenburg - we were now seven again.
Shooting in the Harz from Friday, June 19 to Sunday, June 21, began at 6 am. I had added two extra days out of caution and we really needed those!
On Monday, June 22, 2020 we had our last breakfast together. The Bavarian team then left into the direction of Rosenheim and we stayed another two days in Ilsenburg, writing many times FREEDOM, EQUALITY, BROTHERLINESS onto the earth, on bridges and on stones. We took photos and short videos of these actions.
On June 24, 2020 towards the evening we drove back to Hildesheim.
The editing of our film will begin on July 2, 2020.
The basic idea of the film is the following:
A street person in Berlin writes onto various places, the street, walls and bridges the words
FREEDOM, EQUALITY, BROTHERLINESS
Later he also writes onto the earth and onto walls
FREEDOM in the CULTURAL SPHERE (SPIRITUAL LIFE?)
EQUALITY in the RIGHTS SPHERE
BROTHERLINESS in the ECONOMIC SPHERE
Four young people, Ben, Yannik, Aaron and Alex (the film team) discover him in different locations of the city and decide to create a film about this person.
They then ask Clara (Doris Buchrucker) to interview him in order to find out why he does this. What motivates him and what the reasons are that he lives on the street, biographically. The person slowly begins bit by bit to speak about the individual concepts and later comes to talk about the ‘Threefold Social Organism’.
He explains his interest and his wish for people who never heard or know nothing about the threefold social order, to begin to have an idea and out of this to begin to develop a first sense for the necessity of such an idea.
The film is meant to speak dominantly to young people, the young generation. Again, and again they meet up in different locations and famous places of the city, to converse about urgently needed societal changes for our time, that are long overdue.
From August 1 to 3, I will meet the team and we will look together at the whole film (first cut).
Hildesheim, July 27, 2020