Fall 2013 Series: Avant-garde women in German history

November 4 2013 at 7pm G76 Goldwin Smith Hall Lewis Auditorium

Margarethe von Trotta: Vision. From the life of Hildegard von Bingen (Germany 2009; 111mins)

In German with English subtitles

Synopsis Hildegard von Bingen was truly a woman ahead of her time. A visionary in every sense of the word, this famed 12th-century Benedictine nun was a Christian mystic, composer, philosopher, playwright, poet, naturalist, scientist, physician, herbalist and ecological activist. In Vision - from the Life of Hildegard von Bingen, New German Cinema auteur Margarethe von Trotta reunites with recurrent star Barbara Sukowa (Zentropa, Berlin Alexanderplatz) to bring the story of this extraordinary woman to life. In a staggering performance, Sukowa portrays von Bingen’s fierce determination to expand the responsibilities of women within the order, even as she fends off outrage from some in the Church over the visions she claims to receive from God. Lushly shot in the original medieval cloisters of the fairytale-like German countryside, Vision is a profoundly inspirational portrait of a woman who has emerged from the shadows of history as a forward-thinking and iconoclastic pioneer of faith, change and enlightenment. (from: Zeitgeist Films. The spirit of the times)