67 min min | 2019 | Video/Sound: Clemens Wilhelm & Joakim Blattmann
Premiere: Kino Central Berlin, 9 pm, 09. November 2019.

Clemens Wilhelm walked along the entire former German-German border. He followed the former death strip, today’s nature reserve “The Green Belt”. The 1,400 km route took him from the Czech border to the Baltic Sea in two months.

After every 15 minutes of walking, Clemens Wilhelm stopped to take a picture: the West on the left, the East on the right, in the middle of the picture the former border patrol road. He continued across the whole country in this way, stopping every 15 minutes and documenting the whole former border.

In 975 images and 67 minutes, DIE LINIE shows the complete former border. The images are accompanied by a soundtrack that consists of a musical composition of edited original sound recordings from the border.

Within one hour, it is possible for the viewer of the film to travel all over Germany, along this whole former border line: The German-German border is a fascinating non-place. Hardly anyone knows it from their own experience or has traveled along it, but almost all Germans have crossed it at least once. It exists in the collective memory and in the collective imagination of all Germans.

The German Reunification is an unfinished process even after nearly 30 years. Also globally, walls as a political tool are not a relic of the past and the Cold War, but continue to be present in the political realm: the EU is fencing itself in, Britain is closing itself off, and the US president wants to build a wall to Mexico, etc.

DIE LINIE is located on the media border between moving image and still image, between photography and film. The visual part of the film is accompanied by a special soundtrack, composed by the sound artist Joakim Blattmann (Oslo). The musical basis is formed by original sounds, which were recorded locally on the former border and then processed.

The premiere was held at Kino Central Berlin on 09. November 2019, the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, followed by a screening tour through Germany & abroad.

Screening, 06.09.2020, WIR NACH 1989: Summer Video Art Screening, Das Dritte Land @ Kulturforum Berlin

Screening, 16.11.2019, Künstlerhaus Lauenburg

Screening, 02.10.2020, Kunstverein Wolfenbüttel