Wim Wenders  Der Himmel über Berlin 1987

'I can't see you but I know you're here.'

Wim Wenders’ Himmel über Berlin is a calm black and white film about angels who watch over Berlin and listen to people’s thoughts. They see everything but can’t take part in it. One of them begins to long for life. The chance to feel cold, tired or in love.

Berlin appears worn and uncertain. In the late eighties Berlin was still a divided city that carried the scars of war and the strange quiet of the wall. West Berlin was a place suspended in time; isolated, restless, filled with artists, punks and drifters. Wenders documents this atmosphere with care, showing both; its melancholy and its vitality, it's history and possibility. The angels move through it all without judgment. Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander, major figures in German theatre, bring with them the gravity of actors who are used to speaking on stage, not for the camera. Their presence gives the film it's center and the camera follows them slowly, it's attention an act of love.

This film is chosen by Maaike.

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