fragments local – global

The added value and not merely narrative value of journeys is well-known. Yet even when someone does not travel, they can still tell stories.
In the case of Bruch/Condin´s fragments local – global, because of the word game, even the title of the film can be read as autobiographical. Bruch gathers filmed material, which he has commissioned, and brings it together again in a virtual travelogue: Bruchstücke.
Bruch, increasingly less mobile due to his illness, travels around the world while standing still. The kilometers slowly add up to a trip 2.2 times around the globe. The route is traveled by friends whom he asked to bring back film material from their journeys. As formal guideline, he recommended holding the camera sideways; and no zooms or pans. The rhythm of the recorded landscapes and cities thereby remains dynamic and generates that restless mood a world traveler needs. The lack of order in terms of a north-south route clarifies yet again, not only the significance of travel in our day and age, but that every point of the earth can be easily reached through the technologies of internet and mobile phone, that is, that these technologies make a nearly 1:1 information transfer possible. The cell phone rings and a short message can be read: ´23 Feb. Southern tip of the Lofoten. Arrived at our destination an hour ago. Weather´s getting worse, doesn´t matter, it´s still beautiful in another way. All the best, Mike.´

All of this diary-like information flows into the film in different ways and weaves together with Bruch´s personal memories of several of these places, which he had traveled to earlier. Or he finds quotes from travel guides or delivers a funny personal commentary that he speaks from the off. The journey in one´s own four walls remains a special type of memory work: a road movie controlled from home, a lovingly compiled travel document that humorously and laconically plays with the concept of mobility and, last but not least, with the gaze of the traveler, which remains multifaceted here, and absolutely not that of a tourist.

(Ute Katschthaler)