Dreileben: Don’t Follow Me Around

A unique project arising from an extended email discussion about German cinema, genre and the aesthetics of film, Dreileben brings together the talents of three of Germany’s most significant filmmakers: Christian Petzold, Dominik Graf and Christoph Hochhäusler.

Dreileben is a fictional small town, the setting for three loosely-linked stories all sparked by a single event, the escape of a convict from police custody. Each of the three films is true to the storytelling and cinematic style of its individual director, and while each has small, deftly handled moments of connection, these are never seen from the same viewpoint.

While the films do work in isolation, there is certainly richness in viewing them together, so we will be screening them once in a single sitting, and again as separate performances.

In Don’t Follow Me Around, police psychologist Johanna is sent from the city to help in the search for the escaped offender. When she finds that the hotel room she has booked is taken, she stays instead with an old university friend, Vera, who has lived in the area with her novelist husband for some years. While Johanna’s days are spent on investigations with the unwelcoming local police, her evenings lead to wine-fuelled reminiscing, and the discovery that she and Vera were once in love with the same man.

Graf’s looser, talkier and almost self-consciously retro style is very different from that of his two collaborators, but is a judicious choice for a film where past and present meet with unforeseen consequences.