In English, Swahili, German, Kitharaka (with English subtitles)
Mother tongue – it takes a long time for our dreams to change language. Are we at home in this language? Do we have several homes, as we live bi- or even trilingually, as we speak in other languages than we think and dream? Every language has a space, both inside and outside. With overlaps. The languages we speak are within us, are ours – and those of others. And so some speak within us. Also some „mothers.“
Shot in lockdown, MU/T/T/ER is an introspective meditation on the twisting and breaking of language, drawing on the work of Audre Lorde, M. NourbeSe Philip and May Ayim. In doing so, Esther Kondo Heller approaches the process of filmmaking like a poet, focusing on overlays and unfoldings to articulate memory, resonance and language.
MU/T/T/ER is the third film by filmmaker Esther Kondo Heller after hooded violets 2019 and Bodies 2020. It premiered at the Berlinale 2022 in Forum Expanded.
The screening will be followed by a discussion with Esther Kondo Heller, moderated by Brenda Akele Jorde.