Film Screening THE HALFMOON FILES, TUE 3 DEC 2013, 7PM
PHILIP SCHEFFNER: THE HALFMOON FILES
TUE 3 DEC 2013, 7PM, GOETHE-INSITUT LONDON
Germany 2007, colour, 87mins, with English subtitles. Dir: Philip Scheffner.
“There once was a man.
This man came into the European war.
Germany captured this man.
He wishes to return to India.
If God has mercy, he will make peace soon.
This man will go away from here.”
These are the words that Mall Singh spoke into the phonographic funnel on 11th December 1916 in the city of Wünsdorf, near Berlin. 90 years later, Mall Singh is a number on an old Shellac record in an archive – one amongst hundreds of voices of colonial soldiers of the First World War. The recordings were produced as the result of an unique alliance between the military, the scientific community and the entertainment industry. In his experimental search The Halfmoon Files, Philip Scheffner follows the traces of these voices to the origin of their recording, uncovering pictures and sounds that revive the ghosts of the past.
Mall Singh and the other prisoners of war of the Halfmoon Camp disappeared from the official story of the war written by those who pressed the record button on the phonographs, on photo and film cameras. But their spirits and ghostly appearances seem to play with the filmmaker, to ambush him. They pursue him on his path to bring their voices back to their home countries.
The filmmaker will attend to talk about the film and answer questions
For more information:
http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lon/ver/en11718978v.htm
VENUE AND TICKETS
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Tickets: £3 per session. Free for Goethe-Institut Language Students and Library Members. Booking Essential.