Book | direction | CAMERA | sound | MONTAGE | PRODUCTION

I want you – Meeting Hilde Domin

When I visited Hilde Domin for the first time in her charming apartment with the picturesque view over Heidelberg, she opened the door and was so there, so sprightly, that I was almost startled. Her presence was the most inspiring thing I had ever experienced. I was enchanted by this small, energetic woman with the upswept white hair, nimble legs and bright voice who led me with such zany jauntiness and self-confidence through her library. Even later, after extensive conversations and joint undertakings, she, who could have been my grandmother, seemed always more agile, resilient, and fresher than myself. And she opened her world to me – the past, marked by the blows of fate from the last century, as well as her everyday life in the present. She allowed me to listen to Mozart, Bach and Mendelssohn with her, to cook calf’s liver with jacket potatoes, onions and apple sauce, to go for walks in the wood, go shopping with her, to look at old photographs and to read her particularly gruesome Indian fairytales to fall asleep to with hot milk and honey – the more gruesome, the better. When I visited her – as I did almost every month of the last two years of her life – for a long weekend or went on reading tours with her, she automatically expected me to be at her service, from the ringing of the alarm clock in the morning to the moonlight in the evening. (Excerpt from Anna Ditges’ laudation on the occasion of Hilde Domin’s 100th birthday)

Hilde Domin (1909-2006) was one of the most important German lyricists of her generation. Her poems have been translated into over twenty languages and honoured with international awards. I want you – after the title of one of her poems – is the first documentary film about the exceptional life and work of the Cologne-born Jewish woman who began writing at the age of 42 whilst in exile and achieved fame in post-war Germany as ‘Dichterin der Rückkehr’ (‘the poetess of return’).

Through the persistence examination of her protagonist, Anna Ditges succeeds in creating an intimate portrait of the Grande Dame of German post-war literature. She shows Hilde Domin as she experienced her: sensitive, brusque, and headstrong, an egocentric with a biting sense of humour and full of charm – and increasingly affectionate to the young woman with the camera.

Documentary film | 2007 | 95 min | punktfilm Anna Ditges | WDR | SWR | 3sat | rbb | Filmstiftung NRW | Film Kino Text Filmverleih

In a bookstore, by sheer coincidence, the 26-year-old film-maker Anna Ditges comes across a small book entitled Nur eine Rose als Stütze (‘Only a Rose for Support’) – the first collection of poems by Hilde Domin. Profoundly moved by the power and lucidity of Domin’s lyrical voice, she makes contact with the 95-year-old poetess. With her camera and a bunch of roses, she travels to Heidelberg, the town where Hilde Domin has found a new home after long years in exile.

The encounter between the two women is a great surprise: the Grande Dame of German post-war literature, feared by journalists because of her distant and arrogant attitude, welcomes the unknown young film-maker with warmth and curiosity. At their very first meeting, Hilde Domin takes her filming visitor on a tour of her apartment: the walls covered with bookshelves, the wooden dove that is to be buried with her one day, the photographs of the three most important people in her life, long-dead – and countless roses. Anna Ditges is fascinated: to her, a woman young enough to be the poetess’ great-grandchild, Hilde Domin is an eyewitness of the past who embodies a fragment of German culture and history.

Self-portrait First Kiss with Hilde’s greatest love, Erwin

Do not tire, but quietly, like a bird, hold out your hand to the wonder

Over a period of two years, until the poetess’ death in February 2006, the film-maker visits Hilde Domin regularly in Heidelberg and travels with her to readings and on holiday. During this time, the two dissimilar women are accompanied by the camera. Anna Ditges records Hilde Domin’s everyday life, private and professional, she films her at the typewriter, on the phone, feeding the birds, or sitting as model for a portrait. She asks questions, provokes discussions, continues digging, and thereby manages to get remarkably close to the poetess. In the course of her Meeting Hilde Domin, a relationship evolves despite an age difference of almost 70 years – a close friendship, not always free of conflict, between film-maker and protagonist.

I want you – Meeting Hilde Domin has celebrated its greatest success in German cinema: since November 2007, over 33,000 viewers have seen the film on the big screen.

Awards

I want you
With best wishes for our film
H.D

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