AND I WAS FERIDUN ZAIMOGLU (D 2023)

UND ICH WAR FERIDUN ZAIMOGLU (D 2023; dir.: Thomas Henke) is the third film in the film series accompanying the Kassel Grimm Poetry Professorship. The film was made on the occasion of Feridun Zaimoglu's Grimm Poetry Professorship in 2023.

The premiere will take place in cooperation with the Literaturhaus Kassel on Thursday, November 23, from 17:00 in the Little Bali (Rainer-Dierichs-Platz 1, 34117 Kassel) will take place. Stefanie Kreuzer (Univ. Kassel) will host the event with a panel discussion, cast and crew of the film including a reading by Feridun Zaimoglu.

In the experimental film, the Kiel author Feridun Zaimoglu reads passages from his fictional inaugural lecture. He reflects on storytelling, writing and taking on roles and refers back to  earlier texts of his when he says: "I was not just a criminal on paper [...] I was the fall into dreams". And it is precisely this kind of plunge into bizarre (dream) worlds that the film simultaneously stages for the audience, who are even asked to close their eyes and are presented with a female alter ego of Feridun Zaimoglu in the film dream that follows.

Screenshots from AND I WAS FERIDUN ZAIMOGLU (D 2023)
© Thomas Henke, Stefanie Kreuzer, Feridun Zaimoglu

Credits

And I was Feridun Zaimoglu (D 2023). Directed by Thomas Henke in collaboration with Stefanie Kreuzer. Screenplay: Thomas Henke, Feridun Zaimoglu u. Stefanie Kreuzer (with text excerpts from Feridun Zaimoglu's "Poetik(en) des Alltags - oder: 7 mm bis Kopfnebel" (2023). Camera: Oliver Held, Bartold Strohmeyer. Editing: Oliver Held, Thomas Henke. Cast: Feridun Zaimoglu, Daniela Rieß (hypnotist), Sarah-Lena Birkenbeul (alter ego). Production: HenkeMedien. Running time: 27 min.

For the Kassel Grimm Poetics Professorship (GPP) there are now three experimental film portraits of the laureates in the tradition of FELICITAS HOPPE SAYS (D 2017; R. Thomas Henke u. Oliver Held). UND ICH WAR FERIDUN ZAIMOGLU (D 2023) is, after FRAU DÖRRIE AND THE GHOSTS (D 2022) and THEY ALWAYS SAY TERÉZIA MORA (D 2021) the third film in the Grimm Poetics Professorship accompanying film series.