"Twenty years after the closure of Swiss publishing house Pendo, which was founded in 1971, its story is revealed by way of personification: heir Theresia Weigner and her friend Nicolas, who repeatedly circle, examine and lose sight again of this legacy with all the weight it carries. Here articles of memory are piled high, cared for, stashed away. Remaining stock, no longer hot off the press, but still packaged up for sale, unfinished manuscripts, cover designs, cassettes, office supplies, correspondence and tax documents are all laid out like in a time capsule: books by Margarete Mitscherlich, Dorothee Sölle, Dom Hélder Câmara, Robert Lax or about the Sihl Valley. René Frölke’s film gives a structure to this archive and becomes a simple chamber of wonders. He finds his own annotations within the inner pull exerted by the artefacts and accompanies these stubborn, overwhelmed preservers on their way through their everyday life amid the piles of material. " Madeleine Bernstorff, Berlinale Forum 2024
“In “Traces of Movement Before the Ice”, the director takes the formal means of his earlier films to the extreme. There are black frames with sound, Super 8 sequences without sound. As he has done before, Frölke transcribes everything that is spoken in the film. In this way, he says, a book was created, “and with it the thought: this is now also a book that will disappear, that nobody needs, that is completely pointless”. You can see page excerpts from this transcription. Everything becomes text becomes image becomes text. Frölke even copies the underlining of the manuscripts, but frees them from what they once wanted to emphasize. They become graphic signs, traces without meaning.” Filmdienst
Further material, the trailer and a press booklet can be found on the production company's homepage.
An interview and a commentary by the director can be found on the Berlinale Forum page.
