The 63rd edition of the Viennale, the Vienna film festival, will this year feature a retrospective on Dutch director Digna Sinke, including her latest film Hemelsleutel (Key to Heaven).
In cooperation with the Dutch distributor Verde Films and curated by Gerwin Tamsma, a former programmer of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Viennale, which has just named German director Christian Petzold its new president, will showcase her filmmaking through 13 movies.
“With a cinematic oeuvre characterized by quiet observations, poetic depth, and a special sense of change and landscape, Sinke has been one of the most distinctive voices in Dutch cinema since the 1970s,” the Viennale said. “Digna Sinke will be present in person at the Viennale to share her work with the audience.”
The retrospective will present such early works as Sinke’s graduation short film Groeten uit Zonnemaire (1972), and such features as Boven de Bergen (Above the Mountains, 1992) and Belle van Zuylen (1993), as well as screen such documentaries as Weemoed en Wildernis (Wistful Wilderness, 2010) and Bewaren of Hoe te Leven (Keeping & Saving or How to Live, 2018).
As a special highlight, the Viennale will screen Sinke’s latest film, Hemelsleutel (Key to Heaven), a personal and essayistic movie mixing documentary and fiction elements. It tells the story of “the young photographer Lea, who photographically documents the energy transition in the Amsterdam harbor – and is led on an inner journey through the memories and emotions of the director herself,” reads a synopsis. The film premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival and will be released in Dutch cinemas on June 19.
“It is a great pleasure for us to present Digna Sinke’s multifaceted work as part of a monographic program at the Viennale,” said Viennale director Eva Sangiorgi. “Her films are characterized by an extraordinary creative freedom – she combines diverse cinematic techniques with a fine sense of flair and explores both landscapes and the depths of human experience with an almost painterly sensitivity.”
This year’s Viennale runs Oct. 16–28.
