Motorways, highways, housing estates, industrial areas, shopping malls, tower blocks, rows of balconies, telephone boxes, garage doors, factory chimneys, pedestrian zones, mini golf courses, plastic blinds, push-button telephones, piggy banks, egg timers. And exposed concrete again and again, in the form of roofing plates, facade elements, or plant holders. In her feature debut AUS WESTLICHEN RICHTUNGEN (Germany 2016), Juliane Henrich collects the traces of West German postwar architecture in public space and links them to interior shots from her grandfather’s house. Length camera pans alternate with almost photographic images, accompanied by abstract music. The views of the cities are underlaid with voiceovers of memories from her own childhood, her parents’ Communist past, and quotes from writings by Adenauer, Erhard and Engels about building flats and the ideology of the individual home. The "West" as much, much more than just a direction on the compass. (bik) (22.11.)
