Dostoevsky meets Dogma 95 in a post-Soviet bungalow with a swimming pool. What could go wrong?
In the last house just behind the western borders of Russia, between Paris/Texas and Korleput/Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Cindy Sherman, Dogma 95 and Duma 2000, Frank Castorf directs his virst video production "Dämonen" ("Demons") as a sort of post-Soviet-panslavistic panopticon in his own dramaturgy based on Dostojewski's "Demons" and Camus' "The Posessed". All that in set designer Bert Neumann's industrial-designed bungalow (with swimming pool) built onto forbidding landscape.
Production
Bert Neumann's industrial bungalow as ideological pressure cooker.
Direction
Castorf's theatrical maximalism crammed into cinematic minimalism.
Acting
Henry Hübchen's Stepan—part holy fool, part collapsing monument.
Director
Frank Castorf
Kathrin Angerer
Darja Schatowa
Hendrik Arnst
Hauptmann Lebjadkin
Herbert Fritsch
Kirillow
Henry Hübchen
Stepan Trofimowitsch Werchowenski
Astrid Meyerfeldt
Marja Schatowa
Kurt Naumann
Fedka
Milan Peschel
Pjotr Stepanowitsch Werchowenski
Sophie Rois
Lisa Tuschina
Bernhard Schütz
Iwan Schatow
Jeanette Spassova
Marja Timofejewna Lebjadkina
Joachim Tomaschewsky
Gaganow
Martin Wuttke
Nikolai Wsewolodowitsch Stawrogin
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Castorf ran Berlin's Volksbühne for 25 years; this film exports his 'anti-illusionist' theater directly into your living room. The 'Duma 2000' reference nods to Putin's first election.
Cindy Sherman's photography and Dogma 95's rules both haunt this production—yet Castorf violates every vow of chastity both movements preached. The 'Paris/Texas' and 'Korleput' locations? Pure Castorf geography: imaginary, insulting, real.
US
