Film: Elfi Mikesch: Macumba + Execution - A Study of Mary

A detective's dreamlike journey through a delipidated house inhabitated by mysterious residents and a short film about about Mary Stuart

Macumba follows a detective’s dreamlike journey through the maze of a dilapidated house, whose remaining inhabitants are languidly awaiting its imminent demolition. Reality and fantasy fold into each other in a story of longing, violence and obsession, conveyed by Elfi Mikesch’s compelling imagery. Before the experimental feature film, we will screen her photo film Execution – A Study of Mary, in which she condenses the story of Mary Stuart into a sequence of expressive black and white tableaux.

With an Introduction by Helen de Witt


Execution - A Study of Mary
West Germany 1979, 28 mins, with English subtitles.
Written, directed and filmed by Elfi Mikesch

Macumba
West Germany 1983, 78 mins, with English subtitles.
Written, directed and filmed by Elfi Mikesch


More About the Films

Execution - A Study of Mary

Elfi Mikesch: The drama of a woman who, in a time of upheaval, attempted a form of liberal emancipation but became ensnared in the traps set by men. A study of Mary Stuart. The contradictions and diversity of the material with which Mary’s persona has been surrounded over time led me to the idea of trivialising this ‘royal story’. I condensed the information into images of passion, power, love, pain and death. ‘Execution’ is a photographic film composed of individual images, which draws attention to the ambivalence of the two complementary media of film and photography. (Source: Elfi Mikesch)

West Germany 1979, 28 mins, b/w, photographic film, digital (original format: 35mm), 28 mins, with English subtitles.
Written, directed and photographed by: Elfi Mikesch, Costumes: Elfi Mikesch, Editing: Elfi Mikesch, Production: Oh Muvie Film, World premiere: ‘Study of Mary’, exhibition at the Werner Kunze Gallery, Berlin, November 1978; film premiere: Filmfest ’79, Hamburg 1979; Federal Film Prize for Short Film in Gold; Festival: Montreal.
With Magdalena Montezuma, La Milli, Berrit von Bohlen. Voices: Heinz Emigholz, Cynthia Beat, Ellen Umlauf.

Macumba

The dark, labyrinthine interior of a half-demolished house sets the stage for an equally intricate story of the encounter between a detective in search of a crime and the building’s last remaining residents, a mysterious group of friends intent on letting themselves go. Magdalena Montezuma, the star of films by Wener Schroeter and Ulrike Ottinger, plays one of them, an author haunted by an undefined longing; she is both the inventor of and a character within this dark tale of suppressed passions and impending violence. It unfolds like a dream, guided by its own logic and carried by Mikesch’s beautifully crafted images and an undercurrent of drum-infused music.

Elfi Mikesch: Macumba embodies the rhythm and the enchantment of the younger generation, who refuse to conform to society’s norms. Burning oil wells, volcanic eruptions and messengers from the underworld are not the only signs of transience. The crash of the wrecking ball to the sound of Silvestre Revueltas’ music becomes the swan song of a way of life that drew its inspiration from the 1960s.” (Quelle: Elfi Mikesch)

Rosa von Praunheim: Mikesch’s ingenious camera keeps reinventing cinema (who else does that in Germany?). She works with light and colour, with a poetry and concentration that makes the heart stand still. She shot this film for over a year – with little money, but with imagination and strength and collaborators who believed in her talent. (Berlinale-tip, No. 3, 1982, source: Cinema Ritrovato)

West Germany 1983, 78 mins, colour, digital (original format: 16mm), with English subtitles.
Written, directed and filmed by Elfi Mikesch, camera assistant: Wolfgang Pilgrim, lighting and set design: Stefan Breitel, sound: Anke-Rixa Hansen, editing: Heide Breitel, Production: Elfi Mikesch-Film Berlin on behalf of ZDF/Kleines Fernsehspiel, Editor: Christoph Holch, Premiere: February 1984, Berlin International Film Festival, International Forum of Young Cinema.
With Magdalena Montezuma, Carola Regnier, Bernd Broaderup, Heinz Emigholz, Fritz Mikesch, Frank Ripploh and others.

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