Hanne Lassl

It’s not uncommon for a film to have a moving love story at its core. Yet this particular set-up is unusual. The lovers here are Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan, both important representatives of post-war German-language poetry. The story of the relationship between the Austrian and the Jew from Czernowitz is told through their nearly 20-year correspondence (1948–1967). Or, more precisely, by a young woman and a young man reading from their letters in a studio in Vienna’s venerable Funkhaus.

After growing up as a girl and being celebrated as a women's downhill skiing champion, Erika Schinegger's career came to an abrupt end in 1967 after a sex test. Against the wishes of her family and the national skiing association, Erik started learning to be a man at the age of 20.