Germany, 1987, 78’
author and direction Pina Bausch
with Jakob Andersen, Pina Bausch, Bénédicte Billiet, Matthias Burkert, Rolando Brenes Calvo,Antonio Carallo, Marion Cito, Finola Cronin, Dominique Duszynski, Josephine Amm Emndicott, Melanie Karen Lien, Lutz Förster, Kyomi Ichida, Urs Kaufmann, Ed Kortlandt, Beatrice Libonati, Anne Martin, Dominique Mercy, Jan Minarik, Helena Pikon, Hans Pop, Monika Sagon, Jean Laurent Sasportes, Mark Sieczkarek, Julier Anne Stanzak, Francis Viet
production Rudolf Rach on behalf of L’Arche Éditeur
in collaboration with Pina Bausch Foundation, Wuppertal and Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
distribution L’Arche Éditeur S. A.
A previously unreleased film by Pina Bausch discovered in the archives of the Wuppertal Tanztheater by the choreographer’s son, Rolf Salomon, AHNEN ahnen is a documentary about the creation of Ahnen, a 1987 theatre production that was never shown in Italy. The producers of the feature film Die Klage der Kaiserin / The Complaint of an Empress asked Pina Bausch for a script, but in this documentary she wanted to prove that she was perfectly capable of making a film without a script. Directed and edited by Bausch, AHNEN ahnen explores her work, from the ideation to the staging of a Stück, highlighting her special relationship with the dancers and the “secret” creative process of her mastery, as a complete artist innovative on every front, in dance, theatre, music and even cinema.
