Introduzione all’Oscuro is a heartfelt essay on mourning and a cinematic tribute to the late Hans Hurch, a film critic, assistant to filmmakers Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, and director of the Vienna Film Festival from1997 till his unexpected death from a heart attack in July of 2017 at the age of 64.
Directed by acclaimed Argentine filmmaker Gastón Solnicki (Kékszákallú, Papirosen), the film had its world premiere in the main section of the 75th Venice Film Festival, followed by its North American premiere at the 56th edition of the New York Film Festival.
In Introduzione all’Oscuro, a man wanders the streets of Vienna, guided by the memory of a friend who has recently passed away. The vestiges of a once sumptuous empire becomes the setting of a cinematic elegy and understated celebration of life. Solnicki honors his dear friend Hurch, an eccentric man with a flamboyant personality, inspired by the tenderness and the humor that made their bond so special with this cinematic postcard made from personal objects and archives.
With performative and fictionalized components as well as an elegant cinematography by Rui Poças (Zama, The Ornithologist), Solnicki creates a compelling meditation on grief and an inadvertent portrait of Vienna. In Introduzione all’Oscuro, Solnicki brings different elements from his previous films and masterfully mixes them to create a delicate, uplifting work of cinema about cinema.
INTRODUZIONE ALL’OSCURO
A film by Gastón Solnicki
Argentina/Austria, 2018, 71 min. In English and Spanish.
