Maxi Blaha

B for BARTLEBY is a documentary film essay about a very personal confrontation with this narrative: It becomes a re-encounter with a deceased companion, who wanted to film Bartleby all his life. Then a journey to the USA, to the farmhouse of Herman Melville. Here today's "classic" of American literature, conscripted the women of his family to "write off". We see performative experiments with women "learning" Bartleby and men practicing writing; we see everyday encounters with Bartleby in a cafeteria, a youth club, a center for the stranded. and a legendary offstage theater in New York. Goose quills scurry across blank pages, actresses memorize text that might be their own, costumed museum employees lead tours of "original showplaces," animals (beloved by Herman Melville above all else) glare at us. "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!" It's about the desire and curiosity to find out how to peacefully cope with a personal visitation.

Mr. Kliminov wakes up in a hospital where no one seems to treat him the right way.

Harold May, an excellent Jewish-American tap dancer, on tour in Europe with his company, receives an offer from a German that is difficult to pass up: a large sum to put on a show in Berlin. The German does not know that Harold is of Jewish origins; the year is 1937 and, once they arrive in Germany, the company discovers that he will have to perform in the presence of Adolf Hitler.

In Mödling, a small town near Vienna, girls between the ages of 18 and 20 have been disappearing without a trace at ever shorter intervals for the past 13 years. Residents are worried and accuse the police of incompetence. In this environment of fear and mistrust, the 19-year-old schoolgirl Jeanny meets the mysterious but charming tax consultant Johannes, which initially has something threatening about it. But Johannes sees more in Jeanny than just an innocent girl. And he gives Jeanny, who lost her father at a young age, support and recognition. He helps her to pass the Matura, he awakens her self-confidence and gives her the appreciation that she misses. An unusual love grows between the two, which is initially kept secret from everyone. As she is drawn deeper and deeper into the whirl of her feelings, the aggressive climate in the town continues to escalate. A militia is formed. Jeanny is becoming increasingly insecure. Can she really trust Johannes?