Films by Regina Schilling

2023, 118 min
by Regina Schilling

At 34, Igor Levit is an exceptional artist in the world of classical music. A young rebel, who - at the piano - transforms into a mature musician. At age nine he arrived in Germany, a Jewish immigrant of Russian descent. Having an opinion and publicly expressing it, is not a choice, it is a survival strategy. The film follows the artist over two years as Levit explores his “life after Beethoven“, as he searches for his next challenge, his identity as an artist. We observe him recording new pieces, his intense immersion into the music, his collaborations with conductors, orchestras and recording artists, his warm embrace of the audiences. And then Covid hits. Having booked 180 concerts all over the world, just to see them being cancelled, Levit is among the first to adapt, establishing a musical lifeline between him and his community on Instagram and twitter. And by doing so he discovers a new freedom, away from the constraints of touring, publishing and marketing.Over the course of two years the film accompanies the artist while he navigates between a traditional career in the classics, his need for activism and an uncertain path as a musician who connects and inspires. [GFQ 4 2022]

Germany 2018, 92 min
by Regina Schilling

Just as the Federal Republic of Germany went uphill, German entertainment television developed so splendidly. And the showmasters took part in forgetting the war and its traumatic events: Kulenkampff, Hans Rosenthal and Peter Alexander. All three fell into the turmoil during the war, Kulenkampff and Alexander as soldiers, Rosenthal as a Jew, who, with unbelievably luck, narrowly escaped deportation several times. Like my father, they belonged to a very special generation: First abused by National Socialism, then harnessed to the hamster wheel of reconstruction, they knew nothing of traumatization, or did not want to know.

2014, 94 min
by Regina Schilling

Portrait of actress, author and director Adriana Altaras. Adriana Altaras is a director, actress and writer. And she is from a country which no longer exists: Yugoslavia. The daughter of Jewish partisans who fought for Tito and later started a new life in post-war Germany, in this lovely film she tells the story of her ’high maintenance family’. Adriana’s domestic situation appears unusual at first glance, but can be seen as typical of the generation born after the War. Despite a high standard of living, the wounds from her parents’ past can be felt, even to this day, and the search for her own roots are her constant companion.

Germany 2008, 90 min
by Regina Schilling

For two years, Schilling accompanied this exceptional actor and interviewed some of his temporarycompanions such as Werner Herzog, Herbert Achternbusch and his lover Luisa Francia. Bierbichleropenly talks about his love-hate relationship with the theatre, the origins and his longing for art,his inner conflict with being an actor and his search for new ways including singing Mahler andEisler songs and writing a book. With diary-like video recordings, the film creates especially movingmoments in which Bierbichler would never have accepted a camera team. Schilling succeeds in creatinga complex portrait of a gentle berserk who filled the German stages and films with his uncanny,corporeal presence. A headstrong person who radically exposes himself and anarchically rages againstthe world.