Dir. Ruth Beckermann - 2016 - Austria

The correspondence between Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan is at the foundation of this hybrid between fiction and documentary film. Two young actors, Anja Plaschg and Laurence Rupp, meet in a sound studio to read from the letters. As they read, they become overwhelmed by feelings of fascination and fear, proximity and distance, intoxication and loss. However, they also find pleasure in each other’s company as they talk about music and tattoo’s during their smoke breaks. Whether it’s yesterday’s or tomorrow’s love, whether it’s staged or documentary: the heart of this film lies precisely where those lines are blurred.

"To not let Celan and Bachmann’s story be romanticised beyond the words of the letters and to not draw sweeping, cinematic swells around the two figures is what makes The Dreamed Ones so remarkable." - Another Gaze

"a poetic postwar love affair revisited" - The Guardian

"A film with much more to it than meets the eye...Hard to imagine this story being told in a more emotionally direct and innovative way" - Little White Lies