© True Colours
Freifläche – film with performative reading by Sarah Giese – in cooperation with poetry & moderation Max Neumann
Orfeo: A comic poem in the dark
The film “Orfeo” is based on the graphic novel “Poema a fumetti” by Dino Buzzati.
Orfeo was born from Dino Buzzati’s Poema a fumetti, a work I immediately felt close to in its imagery and evocative power. It became an opportunity for me to blend languages cultivated over time – including artisanal animation, experimental cinema, and optical techniques – into a symbolic and sensorial tale. I wanted to create it by thinking of cinema as a place of dreams, where the viewer embarks on a dreamlike journey… (Virgilio Villoresi – Directors Statement)
A light source opens up in the dark: the images from Poema a fumetti appear on the screen, read and reshaped by Sarah Giese. The poetically surreal graphic novel by Dino Buzzati transposes the Orpheus myth into a modern, dream-like underworld – told in expressive images between longing, loss and seduction.
The reading combines image, voice and space – and at the same time poses questions: Who is looking at whom? Which stories remain invisible? Both the original and the film are told from a male-dominated perspective, in which the female figure becomes a projection surface. Her aesthetic exaggeration and simultaneous speechlessness can be read as an expression of a male gaze – and at the same time opens up new possibilities for questioning this blank space.
This is followed by Orfeo by Virgilio Villoresi: a visually opulent film about a musician who follows his lost lover into a fantastic world in between – a visually stunning, experimental journey through memory, desire and loss.
About the film: Since his childhood, Orfeo has made up fantastic stories about an abandoned villa opposite his home. A lonely pianist, he meets the young Eura one evening at Polypus, the club where he regularly plays. A strong, absolute love develops, but one day Eura disappears, swallowed up by an absence that Orfeo cannot explain.
One night, he sees her enter the abandoned villa through a small door. He follows her. When he crosses the threshold, he finds himself in a visionary world populated by creatures such as the Melusines, the Forest Wizard and skeleton parades….
READING: SARAH GIESE M.A.– is a trained speaker and speech scientist (DGSS), literature and theatre scholar and can be heard regularly on ARD, ZDF and WDR. She lends her voice to RBB radio plays, audio book productions and can be heard as a speaker in many museums and installations. Regular collaborations with the Münster labels of Mareike Fiege, SkrytinSystur, Baddabäm!, Paper Show Company, Rue Obscure and the CFL – Centre for Literature. www.sarahgiese.de
MODERATON: MAX NEUMANN is a cultural producer. After completing his training as a media designer (digital/print), he studied German and media studies at the Ruhr University in Bochum, where he worked for several years at the media studies department of Prof Dr Oliver Fahle. In addition to his work behind the scenes at regional arthouse cinemas such as the endstation.kino Bochum and the Schoßtheater Münster, his freelance activities, especially as a moderator and curator, have taken him to various film festivals, and he has also been at the Münster Film Festival since 2023.
Nach dem Klick läd externer Inhalt von youtube.com
POETRY 2026 will take place from 8 June to 5 July.
poetry is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and Office of Cultural Affairs Münster.
