aQua ad lavandum - in brevi
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | aQua ad lavandum - in brevi |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2008 |
| length | 15 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Helge Balzer, Florian Metzner |
| script | Helge Balzer, Florian Metzner |
| production | University of Film and Television Potsdam |
| music | Stefan Maria Schneider |
| camera | Benjamin Bayer |
| cut | Florian Metzner |
| occupation | |
| |
aQua ad lavandum - in brevi is the name of a German short film from 2008 by the directors Florian Metzner and Helge Balzer. The film treats an individual's struggle with his conscience in a parable form.
content
Coming from a party, the main character "Debitus" kills his colleague "Causas" in an argument when he attacks him with a dagger. Debitus believes that no one has seen it. He throws the dagger away. He manages to hide the corpse in the darkness around him. When he asks for admission to the party again at the door he and Causas came out of, he finds that his shirt and body are smeared with blood from Causas. He won't be let in. In his desperation, a voice speaks to him from the darkness and advises him to simply wash himself clean.
Debitus, who has become more and more used to the darkness, discovers a large well filled with water not far from the door. When he tries to scoop a bucket with a hand crank, he uses it to set an enormous old, rusty mechanism in motion that lifts a gigantic iron grate that is on the edge of darkness.
Debitus lets go of the well. As the heavy bucket of water rushes back into the well, the old, bulky grille falls down again and gets caught several times. When the voice speaks to Debitus again, he realizes that it must be someone sitting behind the bars. This someone, who always remains in the dark and is only sometimes vaguely recognizable, is the creature "Impedim". Impedim urges Debitus to finally wash, but Debitus remains skeptical. As strong as the desire in him is to wash himself clean with the water in order to then be able to leave this place through the door to the party, so great are his concerns about letting the being Impedim free.
Annoyed and annoyed by Impedim's jostling and insults, Debitus finally leaves the place and retreats into the darkness. Left alone in this eerie place, he has to admit that the desire for pure water is greater than the risk that the opening of the portcullis could bring. He returns, cranks up the bucket of water and washes away the blood. The grille is now fully open.
When Debitus wants to go to the door to ask for admission, Impedim wishes him a lot of fun at the party and asks him to "have a drink for his colleague". Debitus is shocked when he realizes that with Impedim there is now a witness to his crime who could betray him. He looks for the corpse, but in the place where he left it all he finds is a pool of blood and rubbing marks that lead directly behind the adjacent grating. Debitus goes to the grid opening to follow the leads. At that moment, Impedim reveals himself, a huge creature that looks like Debitus, just terribly disfigured and mistreated.
Impedim grins and carries the dead Causas in his arms. He drops it and rushes towards Debitus, but chains on his neck and arms prevent him from reaching him. Due to the open grid, Impedim now has enough space to tension the chains so strongly that they begin to burst. Debitus rushes to the door and begs to be admitted, but nobody opens. Instead, Impedim manages to break free from its chains further and further. When a chain link hits the crank of the well, Debitus gets a flash of inspiration: He grabs the bucket and cranks it down into the well. In doing so, he reactivates the mechanism that lowers the grille. Due to its rusty consistency, however, it gets stuck and thus remains almost completely open, although the bucket has already been cranked all the way back into the well. Debitus jumps to the grate to weigh it down. At that moment, Impedim breaks the last chain and crashes into Debitus, who falls to the floor from the force. Impedim pulls Debitus to itself. With a targeted kick, Debitus can tear himself away and makes one last desperate attempt to get to the door.
At the last moment, however, Impedim catches up with him and drags him by the feet in the direction of the portcullis, which gradually detaches from its anchoring and will soon be closed forever. Debitus holds on to the fountain and tears himself away from Impedim one last time. In this hopeless situation, Debitus crawls away from Impedim whimpering, who gently and greedily persuades him to get involved. Suddenly Debitus' hands feel the dagger with which he killed Causas. He whirls around and suddenly cuts Impedim across the face. This stumbles, falls on the well and breaks the yoke. Debitus jumps up and kicks his tormentor into the depths of the well shaft.
Washed clean, he knocks again on the door of the party. A slit opens. Debitus is let in and gets a new shirt. Amid his laughter, he enters the party and the door closes. The laughter continues. In a last shot of the film you can see that the laughter comes from Impedim - from the depths of the well.
background
The film is a production of the University of Film and Television "Konrad Wolf" in cooperation with Amber Artworks - creative film. The complete set specially designed and built for the film. It also contains visual effects, digital set extensions and animations. The Arriflex D-20 was used for shooting, a prototype at the time of shooting. The music was recorded by the Babelsberg German Film Orchestra .
There is an older version of the film from 2006 with the shorter title "Aqua ad lavandum", which is about 10 minutes longer. This version, in which color correction, sound mixing and music do not have the final touch, was produced especially for the film fair "Insight Out" of the University of Film and Television "Konrad Wolf", where it was shown to the audience in 2006.
Awards
In December 2008, the Wiesbaden film evaluation agency awarded the film the rating of “valuable”. The short film has been shown at film festivals around the world since August 2008 and has received several nominations, including best short film, best foreign short film, best director, best camera, best music, best special effects, best visual effects, best sound design, best animation. In October 2009, he was recognized for Best Cinematography at the Dark Carnival Film Festival in Bloomington , Indiana . In the same month, the "Best FX Short" award at the Sacramento Horror Film Festival in Sacramento, California, followed . A month later, the film received the Best Special Effects Award at the 28 Hours Later Film Festival in Fareham , New Hampshire.
The music of Stefan Maria Schneider is in SoundTrack Cologne nominated 6.0 for the peer Raven Music Prize.
Press
The German television magazine Moviestar said the subject of the short film was an “extremely human conflict”, namely “guilt, covering up, atonement. The cinematic result is more than impressive ... "And:" Aqua ad lavandum is a university production that was designed to be visually [...] impressive. The set design and the special effects look extremely professional, plus there is a film score that is worth listening to. "Although it is not yet possible to say," How the makers will fare over the longer film distance, for example, there is a technical and creative potential here. that you should keep an eye on - because maybe you will hear [...] even more from the two makers in the future. "
Another article about the film was published in the German entertainment magazine Virus . "The plot was implemented in a very innovative way and the main character, played with impressive persuasiveness by Alexander Schubert, allows the viewer an unusually deep and captivating look into the depths of his soul." The production is not just something for lovers of short films. “Spectacular camera, unique atmosphere - Florian Metzner's film scores with criteria that are seldom found in this category. We are dealing here with a very artistic, aesthetic work that you should definitely take a look at. "
The German entertainment magazine Deadline found the film “virtuoso and mystical.” It was “an almost one-person piece in a dark, melancholy blue-filter fantasy world, superbly accompanied by the Babelsberg orchestra .”
Web links
- AQua ad lavandum - in brevi in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- AQua ad lavandum - in brevi on YouTube
- Official homepage of the film
- Conversation with Florian Metzner about the film
- Criticism of the film evaluation agency Wiesbaden