29.09.2023 | "Forever" at the Filmfest Hamburg
In "Forever - The Story of a Love", Hamburg filmmaker and Grimme Award winner Pia Lenz accompanied a married couple from Harburg with her camera for five years during the last stage of their lives. A film about the highs and lows of a life together - until one of them has to go first at the end. Just released at Filmfest Hamburg and in cinemas from 9 November.
In 2018, filmmaker Pia Lenz and her production company Pier53 placed an advert in several daily and weekly newspapers: They were looking for an older couple who had been together for a very long time and would be willing to take part in a long-term observation. A short time later, a young woman got in touch and said that her parents would be perfect. Pia Lenz travelled to Harburg and met Eva and Dieter Simon in their home for the first time. "Fortunately, both were totally open to the project, a lovely couple - but Eva was the driving force. I already had a very good feeling from that first meeting," says the Hamburg-based Director. And this feeling was not to deceive her.
Over the next five years, she visited the couple - both already over 80 - many times, mostly with her Super 35mm camera, sometimes without. They spent whole days together, and Lenz even spent the night in Dieter and Eva's house on several occasions. In the first year, she visited frequently, later at longer intervals. Every few months, she sat down with her editor Ulrike Tortora, sifted through material and analysed it. "Instead of writing things down with a pad and pen, I prefer to observe with my camera," says Lenz. As with her Grimme Award-winning Documentary "Alles gut", she shot almost the entire film alone and with small equipment. This allows her to get very close to her protagonists. Lenz carefully and precisely captures the atmosphere of everyday scenes in a room.
During the course of filming, Eva entrusted the filmmaker with her notes and diaries, which she had kept since her teenage years. "In the beginning, I only filmed her reading - because a diary is something very intimate. But at some point she put all her books in my hand and said I could read them all. That opened up a whole new world for me. Not only did I get to know the young Eva, who I felt very close to in many places, but I also got an unsparingly honest insight into the inner life of this long relationship," says Lenz. Some of the diary entries ultimately found their way into the finished film. Actress Nina Hoss was chosen to read from the film - also Eva's first choice, as she really liked the sound of her voice.
The result is a documentary about the last stage in the life of a couple who have gone through good and bad times in the previous decades, mastered crises and, in the end, could no longer live without each other. "Dieter and I would prefer to die together, neither of us wants to live on alone. And if that's not possible, I want to die first. I know that's very selfish," says Eva at one point in the film. And yet the film is heading towards an inevitable end where one of them has to go first. "I talked to Eva, who became ill at some point, quite early on about dying. And she wanted the camera to be there during this time. I consider it a great privilege to have experienced this time with Eva and Dieter. The two of them changed my view of old age and such a long relationship," reveals Lenz.
At the end of last year, shortly before Christmas, she watched the film at home with Dieter and one of his daughters. Dieter found himself in the film and was happy with the result. With lots of laughter but also tears. Filmfest Hamburg visitors who see the film on 1 October at its Hamburg premiere in the Metropolis cinema (12 noon) will probably feel the same way. "Forever - The Story of a Love" will then be released in German cinemas on 9 November. A film that shows that it's often the little things that count.
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