17.09.22 | BRUNO SUKROW - THE FILM TINKERER

17.09.22 | BRUNO SUKROW – THE FILM TINKERER

Bruno Sukrow, who called himself a “film tinkerer” throughout his life, was born in Berlin in 1927 and died earlier this year at the age of 94. Originally trained as a machinist, he switched to being a film amateur at the age of 82 – from then on, he created a remarkable oeuvre on his home computer. In them, Sukrow created a new world for himself, completely steeped in his personal preferences, whose quirky second-life-aesthetics are full of heroes, monsters, plot twists and jokes that run into the void. The films following this approach were initially thought for a family context – no one dared to dream that his private, computerised auteur cinema would make it to the International Film Festival of Rotterdam.

SATURNUS is the planet promising eternal life. Astronauts set out in a space shuttle to rescue the last survivors of an earlier expedition. Accompanied by ambient music, they stumble across the planet that Sukrow has filled with all kinds of fantasy creatures. The decelerated mystery thriller MARTINS FEUER is situated in a British small town. A psychiatrist is shot, Martin was his last patient. The police begins to look behind the curtains of the single-family homes. VERGISSMEINNICHT concludes the triple: small town plus aliens. Tulip-Toni becomes entangled in a romance and is contacted by an UFO – the animations here are more filigree, the soundscape more organic. You can tell that Bruno Sukrow has been tinkering for several years.