Le Souffle

The film by Uli M Schueppel embarks on a poetic-abstract journey from breath to breath. Through the Berlin night, we encounter people in diverse situations and accompany them for a short while as they each move within their own realities. Short scenes, verses emerge. The breath sets the rhythm for each “chant”, with one breath flowing into the next. Each encounter is treated as a “verse/chant”, both visually (cinematography: Cornelius Plache) and musically (music composition: Christina Vantzou), in such a way as to elevate it and set it apart from its purely documentary context.
We hear the stories of those portrayed. Each person describes an existential experience that changed (or could’ve changed) “everything”. Something that caused them to hold their breath, where everything came to a grinding halt, a complete standstill. It is the suspension of movement, of all time, of their own existence, due to fear, due to pain, due to sorrow, panic, joy or even just an inkling of it all.
At some time, somewhere, it happens to all of us: that moment before it all starts back up again. This endless movement (of breath), these chants from inside the darkness of the city of Berlin.