Substanz

It took the young German documentarist three years to find a way to use the shots he had acquired in Japan shortly after the Fukushima catastrophe. In the end, he arranged the images of destruction, human despair, and chaos into an impressionistic film collage that combines his hypnotic multiple exposures with an evocative soundtrack. Before our eyes, the film frame rolls out an amorphous audiovisual "substance" that seeks to convey the abstract perceptions of a paralyzed foreigner who is confronted with a disaster of apocalyptic dimensions. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)