Sailor´s Funeral

A rubbish dump, somewhere on the edge of town: two people rummage around in the dirty containers for something valuable, without the pressure of time or any great ambition. Whatever they find, it brings little money; where they go depends completely on caprice-scenes from the lives of two drifters, homeless people who try to hold themselves above water with improvised gambling games, hard drugs and vague hopes of the next day (which will, again, only bring small amounts of cash). Photographs from another life, from another world surface like a wicked commentary: one of the heroes carries the face of Alain Delon (from Melville´s film Le samouraï) around, while the other finds old pin-up postcards in the rubbish. With what happens in the film - the fights in the dirty pissoirs, the depressing chance confrontation with death - has nothing in common with these photos. The glamour and the Hollywood star stylisation are only beautiful utopias, the last, fast escapism when trust in the world fails.

Valentin Hitz, director and author of this short film about homelessness, trusts in a realism where the cinematic story does not (inevitably) explain everything, where things remain temporary and the world is not hermetically sealed off. No long moralising, no plea for or against something. Instead of that, one is allowed to look on reality and into the faces of people one wants to believe again. At the end is a small ritual in the cold - a last cool comment on the fact that the fight against inhumanity takes place also in (or exactly because of) the apparently meaningless.

(Stefan Grissemann)


Sailor´s funeral is the journey of the fourteen year ols junkie Sebastian and the thirty years old Gips through the garbage cans of the suburbs. While garbage digging they find a thrown away baby. To honour the child´s death they leave the suburbs for the country side. There they celebrate the baby´s funeral.

(Synopsis)

Orig. Title
Seemannsbegräbnis
Year
1995
Country
Austria
Duration
19 min
Director
Valentin Hitz
Category
Short fiction
Orig. Language
German
Downloads
Credits
Director
Valentin Hitz
Script
Valentin Hitz
Cinematography
Oliver Strassl
Sound
Chris Krikellis
Editing
Torsten Heinemann
Sound
Torsten Heinemann
Production
Maria Arlamovsky
Actor/Actress
Stefan Bohun, Frau Dreiner, Jo Duebell, Haymon Maria Buttinger, Chris Krikellis, Roger Studer, Ingolf Müller
Art Direction
Stefanie Wilhelm
Lighting
Ramsy Abda-Tirko
Costumes
Christof Cremer
Assistant Director
Antonin Svoboda
Available Formats
16 mm (Original Format)
Aspect Ratio
1:1,37
Sound Format
stereo
Frame Rate
24 fps
16 mm (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
1:1,37
Sound Format
stereo
Frame Rate
24 fps
Festivals (Selection)
1995
Wien - StudentInnenfilmfestival
Kiew - Molodist Int. Film Festival
Namur - Festival Int. du Court Métrage
Salzburg - Diagonale - Festival des Österreichischen Films
1996
Triest - Alpe Adria Cinema - Film Festival
Clermont-Ferrand - Festival de Court Metrage
Seine-St.Denis - Côté court
Nantucket - Film Festival
New Orleans - Film & Video Festival