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ORPHEA

A Music Film

By Alexander Kluge and Khavn

With Lilith Stangenberg and

Ian Madrigal

99 Minutes

Germany 2020

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Synopsis

The film ORPHEA is a cooperation between German filmmaker Alexander

Kluge and Khavn De la Cruz, filmmaker from the Phillipines. In the focus of the

music film: Lilith Stangenberg.

The ancient myth of musician Orpheus who wants to bring back his beloved

from the underworld and who manages to win over the hellhound with the

power of music dates back more than 2,000 years. When Khavn, Kluge, and

the whole team were sitting together at the Venice Film Festival after the

premiere of HAPPY LAMENTO the idea arose to make a film from this ancient

story. Everyone agreed that it was sad that Orpheus had not really been able,

after all the many attempts of this myth, to bring his beloved back to daylight.

It was also incomprehensible to all present that such a natural gesture of

turning to see the beloved, should be punished with her death. One would

have to change the sexes: maybe an Orphea would be able to liberate her

beloved from hell.

Music is an art born from Eve’s rib.

In Manila, Khavn’s home city, Lilith Stangenberg goes through a hell. While

passionately searching for her Eurydiko, he is already hot on her heels. At the

same time in Central Europe: Orphea works „in the name of the revolution“

not only for the liberation of her beloved but for the return of all dead: for the

utopia of Apokatastasis Panton. This utopia goes as well with Silicon Valley of

today as with the program of the revolution in 1917.

Nothing in ORPHEA is fixed, all is rythm. Orphea has left behind the ancient

tragedy with its standards, believing in the mammoths of fantasy, the power

of music, and the capacity for love, which are the cornerstones of all cinema.

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In the brothels of Manila

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ORPHEUS, son of Apollo and Nosferatu /

He couldn’t save his beloved /

Ever since he has called himself EURYDIKO...

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The story of ORPHEUS and EURYDICE is about people who bring

back what they love from the realm of the dead...

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CERBERUS IN LOVE

"Hiking boots from the realm of the dead"

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Lilith Stangenberg sings „Mammoth’s

Return“(1941). Opus posthumum of Th.

W. Adorno. Accompanied on piano

by Sir Henry at Volksbühne am Rosa-

Luxemburg-Platz “What’s that driving in a car and stretching out its long trunk?

What’s that driving in a car and stretching out its long trunk?

It’s a mammoth. It’s a mammoth. It’s a mammoth. And he’s driving home.

It’s a mammoth. It’s a mammoth. And he’s driving home. He’s driving home“.

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ORPHEA practices TANGO…

ORFEO, Opera by Jacopo Peri

from1600 … non piango e non sospiro, o mia cara Euridice

Che sospira, che lacrima non posso

Cadavero infelice, o mio cuore, o mio spemme,

O pace, o vita.

The fatal snake bite

25:55 - 26:26

Lilith reads Ovid's account of how the

snake bit Eurydice in the foot:

… and the torch he held would only sputter, fill the eyes with smoke,

and cause no blaze while waving. The result of that sad wedding,

proved more terrible

than such foreboding fates.

While through the grass

delighted Naiads wandered with the bride,

a serpent struck its venomed tooth in her

soft ankle— and she died.

(From Ovid, 11th Book)

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Ingmar Bergmann on the metaphor of

the serpent

Lilith: I remember Bergman in the 1960s – when he presented PERSONA –

talking about how art already seems dead to him.

AK: The art of film?

Lilith: Art and cinema. He doesn’t just want to talk about the cinema, he talks

about art: it’s dead. And he uses the image of a snakeskin and says that art is

a dead snake, a snake that’s been eaten. All that’s left is the skin, and the skin

is filled with ants, thousands of ants. The snake doesn’t have any poison left,

it’s dead, but the ants move the skin with busy vitality. You can put a

tourniquet on the arm.

AK: You can put on a tourniquet, you can perform an emergency operation

on the joint, but that’s pretty brutal.

Lilith: Like in Herzog’s diary…

AK: Yes.

Lilith: The Indian who was felling trees, the snake comes and 10 seconds later

he takes his chainsaw and saws off his leg, because he knew: either I survive

without my leg, or in a minute I’ll be dead.

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BIOCOSMISTS 1917 / "In the struggle to bring back all the dead”

ORPHEA, BIOCOSMIST:

"It wouldn’t be revolutionary to extend

our own lives while leaving our

ancestors, who worked to achieve all

this, in their dark graves..."

Formula for “The recovery of Eve’s rib”

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The entrance to Hades A visit to the king of the Realm of the Dead

"Beggar" / The “Louse Queen”: DUEL in ORCUS“

Song

BEGGAR

I go always

from door-to-door,

Rain-drenched, sun-scorched;

Suddenly I’ll lay my right ear

BbM7 - A7

In my right hand.

Then my voice sounds to me

as if I’d never heard it.

Then I cry for someone else

I cry for ten cents

I cry for myself

I cry for poets

Finally, I close my face

with both my eyes;

the way it lies then in my hand

with its weight, it looks almost like

BbM7 - A7

rest. So they won’t think I don’t have anywhere

to place my head.

I cry for someone else

I cry for ten cents

I cry for myself

I cry for poets

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Whirlwinds of Danger

Whirlwinds of Danger (original Polish title: Warszawianka) is a Polish socialist

revolutionary song written sometime between 1879 and 1883. The song

became the anthem of worker protests during the Revolution in the Kingdom

of Poland (1905–1907), when 30 workers were shot during the May Day

demonstrations in Warsaw in 1905.

Whirlwinds of danger are raging around us,

O'erwhelming forces of darkness assail,

Still in the fight see advancing before us,

Red flag of liberty that yet shall prevail.

Then forward ye workers, freedom awaits you,

O'er all the world on the land and the sea.

On with the fight for the cause of humanity.

March, march ye toilers and the world shall be free.

Women and children in hunger are calling,

Shall we be silent to their sorrow and woe?

While in the fight see our brothers are falling,

Up then united and conquer the foe!

Then forward ye workers, freedom awaits you,

O'er all the world on the land and the sea.

On with the fight for the cause of humanity.

March, march ye toilers and the world shall be free.

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Off with the crown of the tyrants of favor!

Down in the dust with the prince and the peer!

Strike off your chains, all ye brave sons of labor!

Wake all humanity, for victory is near.

Then forward ye workers, freedom awaits you,

O'er all the world on the land and the sea.

On with the fight for the cause of humanity.

March, march ye toilers and the world shall be free.

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From the Egyptian Book of the Dead

Found by Senior Lieutenant Friedrichs, reservist and teacher, in Greece, 1941

"Orphic Lamellae” (in gold) / From the Egyptian Book of the Dead

01:07:45 - 01:09:59 Lilith:

(from Eleutherae in Crete: second century B.C.)

"A: 'I am dry with thirst and am perishing.'

B: 'Come, drink please, from the ever-flowing spring on the right, where the

cypress is. Who are you, and where do you come from?'

A: 'I am the son of Earth and Starry Heaven.'"

On the right side of the well-fitted house of Hades is a spring, and close to this

stands a shining cypress: Around this place the descending souls cool

themselves.

"For in the ninth year Persephone sends the souls of those from whom she has

received the penalty of ancient crime back again from beneath into the light

of the sun above, and these are they who become noble kings and mighty

men and great in wisdom and are called saintly heroes in after ages."

I have entered under the bosom of the lady of the house, the Queen of the

Underworld, I have passed with swift feet from the desired wreath

Hail you who have suffered the Suffering, but this you have never suffered

before: You have become (a) god from human: A kid has fallen into milk.

As an ox you leaped into milk

Quickly you leaped into milk

A ram you cast yourself into milk.

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Lilith: What a crazy text.

AK: Yes.

Lilith: (The mystagogue speaks:)

When the soul has left the light of Helios, you must . . . . . turn to the right. The

soul must take care, must not drink from the water of Lethe, must tell the

guards the whole truth, with the prescribed passwords.

The experience never before experienced by the soul must be the elevation

to the higher status of the pious.

Greetings, take the right-hand path to the sacred meadows and the grove of

Persephone.

The soul must take care, must not drink from the water of Lethe, must tell the

guards the whole truth, with the prescribed passwords.

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Orphea’s journey on the River Lethe

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Lethe ("River of Oblivion")

Styx ("River of the Dead")

Hades ("Realm of the Dead")

Silicon Valley / "We’re working on immortality"

Formula for eternal life

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Kinderkreuzzug 1939 (Bert Brecht)

In Poland, in nineteen thirty-nine,

there was the bloodiest fight:

turning ev’ry town and village

into a wilderness of night.

Lost children were scuttling, hungry;

in little formations were seen.

There they gathered with others,

standing where villages once had been.

They wanted to fly from the fighting,

let the nightmare cease;

and one fine day they’d come

upon a land where there was peace.

In Poland that same January,

they caught a dog half strangled:

a cord was hung round his scraggy neck

and from it a notice dangled.

Saying this: please come and help us!

Where we are we cannot say.

We’re the five-and-fifty

the dog knows the way.

The writing was in a childish hand.

Peasants had read it over.

Since then more than a year has gone by.

The dog starved: he didn’t recove

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For me to bring back from Hell the

dearest thing I have …

"That’s what music is for!”

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BIOGRAPHY, Khavn As the director of 51 feature-length and 115 short films, author of six books and

composer of 23 albums, he is one of the Philippines’ most renowned

contemporary artists. His poetry and stories have won him the Don Carlos

Palanca Memorial Award. The 2008 Forum screened his film THE MUZZLED

HORSE OF AN ENGINEER IN SEARCH OF MECHANICAL SADDLES. In 2009, he

was a member of the International Short Film Jury at the Berlinale.

"The Filipino Renaissance man Khavn is one of the best kept secrets of the digital

underground cinema. Khavn (...) may seem like a foolish punk, but in the end

he is also an outstanding rebel."

Film Comment (New York)

"The Enfant terrible of Philippine cinema"

Giovanni Spagnoletti, Festival Director, Pesaro Film Festival

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"Khavn deserves a place in the international league of experimental and cult

filmmakers as well as Japan's Takashi Miike, Germany's Jörg Buttgereit and

South Africa's Aryan Kaganof/ Ian Kerkhof."

Gertjan Zuilhof, Programme Manager, Rotterdam International Film Festival

Filmography, Khavn (selection)

2018 BAMBOO DOGS

2017 BALANGIGA: HOWLING WILDERNESS

2016 ALIPATO – THE VERY BRIEF LIFE OF AN AMBER

2016 SIMULACRUM TREMENDUM

2015 DESPARADISO

2014 RUINED HEART – ANOTHER LOVESTORY BETWEEN A CRIMINAL AND A

WHORE

2013 MISERICORDIA – THE LAST MYSTERY OF KRISTO VAMPIRO

2010 MONDOMANILA

2009 THE MIDDLE MYSTERY OF KRISTO NEGRO

2008 THE MUZZLED HORSE OF AN ENGINEER IN SEARCH OF MECHANICAL

SADDLES

2008 MANILA IN THE FANGS OF DARKNESS

2007 SQATTERPUNK

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Biography, Alexander Kluge

Alexander Kluge Born in Halberstadt in 1932. He studied Law, History and

Church music and has been working as a writer and film maker. He was one

of the originators of the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962. In 1966, he completed

his first feature film, ABSCHIED VON GESTERN. His last film HAPPY LAMENTO –

also with Khavn – was shown at the Venice film festival in 2018. At the end of

the 1980s, Kluge devoted himself to television and in 1988 he founded the

production company dctp (Development Company for Television Programs),

through which he developed his own television formats.

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Filmography, Alexander Kluge (Selection):

2020 ORPHEA

2018 HAPPY LAMENTO

1985 Der Angriff der Gegenwart auf die übrige Zeit (THE BLIND DIRECTOR)

1983 Die Macht der Gefühle (THE POWER OF FEELINGS)

1979 Die Patriotin (THE FEMALE PATRIOT)

1978 Deutschland im Herbst co-directed by Volker Schlöndorff, Rainer Werner

Fassbinder, Edgar Reitz (GERMANY IN AUTUMN)

1976 Der starke Ferdinand (STRONGMAN FERDINAND)

1973 Gelegenheitsarbeit einer Sklavin (PPART-TIME WORK OF A DOMESTIC

SLAVE)

1967 Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: ratlos (A DOCTOR FROM HALBERSTADT)

1966 Abschied von Gestern (YESTERDAY GIRL)

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Teams

Directors

Alexander Kluge & Khavn

Production

Kairos Film Alexander Kluge

Rapid Eye Movies Stephan Holl & Antoinette Köster

Script

Alexander Kluge & Khavn, Douglas Candano

Lilith Stangenberg as Orphea

Ian Madrigal as Euridiko

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Kairos Film

Camera: Thomas Willke, Walter Lenertz, Vincent Schaack, Michael Kurz,

Frédéric Krauke

Postproduction & Editing: Kajetan Forstner, Andreas Kern, Roland Forstner,

Erich Harant, Toni Werner

Organisation: Barbara Barnak, Beata Wiggen

Music

Gran Tango de Salon / DIE MARNE-SCHLACHT / Composed by Eduardo Arolas

(1919)

ORFEO / Composed by Jacopo Peri (1600)

STENKA RAZIN / Russian traditional

RÜSSEL-MAMMUTS HEIMKEHR / Composed by Th. W. Adorno (1941)

Auschnitt aus Beethovens “FIDELIO” / Bayrische Staatsoper München

Ausschnitt aus Monteverdis “ORFEO” / Staatsoper Stuttgart

Ausschnitt aus Glucks “ORPHEUS UND EURYDICE”

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Kamias Overground

Production Design: Martin Yambao

Costume Design: Zeus Bascon, Kim Perez, Antoinette Köster

Animation: Roxlee

Musical Arranger: Diego Mapa

Editing: Lawrence S. Ang

Sound Design: Mikko Quizon

Colorist: Timmy Torres

Junior Colorist: Carla Manalo

Assistant Director & Production Manager: Kristine Kintana

Music Supervisor: Stephan Holl

Location & Production Manager: Santie Navarro

Casting & Assistant Production Manager: Mikee Quejada

Assistant Production Manager: Amaya Han

Additional Photography: Jippy Pascua, Jet Leyco, Francis Guillermo, Rocky

Aurelio, Keith De Venecia, JB Corpuz

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Subtitle Translation; Joel Toledo, Maria Estela Paiso, Vim Nadera

Music:

Words & Music by Khavn / Lyrics inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Die

Stimmen” / Vocals Lilith Stangenberg / Arranged by Diego Mapa /

Recorded by Diego Mapa at Pulse Wave Studio & by RJ Mabilin at

Redverb Studio

Khavn on Piano, Diego Mapa on electric guitar

“TRINKER” Featuring Lamenti

(Karlik)

“BALO” Featuring Raye Lucero on vox & Gerry Duran on guitar

“LABINGDALAWANG SUGAR NG PUSO” (Twelve Wounds Of The Heart) /

Poem by Francisco Balagtas

“IDIOT” / “DRUNK” / “LEPER” / “ORPHAN” / “LEAF SUICIDE” / Featuring

Rico Dahon on leaf

(Pjanitza) / “BEGGAR” / “PULUBI” / Featuring Racquel de Loyola on vox

“BLIND” / “MARIMBA SUICIDE” / Featuring Charlie Sage on vox and Leo

Saballe on marimba

“TIWAKAL” / “HINAHANAP” / (Looking) / Poem by Khavn

“BWAKEVA + BWAKIGO” = Touch By Touch / Music by Martin de Mesa &

/ Maan de Loyola

Martin de Mesa on vox / Maan de Loyola on melodica

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Rapid Eye Movies

Antoinette Köster & Stephan Holl

Associate Producer : Raimond Göbel

Marketing & Festivals : Thorsten Peters

Subtiteling; Babelfisch, Henrike Bauer

Title Design & Artwork: Mario Lombardo

Accounts & Legal: Anne-Sophie Quancard

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The next relative of Orphea in Milan is

Jean-Luc Godard's "Le Studio

d'Orphée".

Jean-Luc Godard, “Le Studio d’Orphée” | Photo: Agostino Osio - Alto Piano

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PRESS AGENT

Greenhouse PR

Silke Lehmann, lehmann@greenhouse-pr.com, +49 151 68100088

Almut Susanne Wilmes, wilmes@greenhouse-pr.co, +49 170 68 997 68

Potsdamer Str. 139, 10783 Berlin

www.greenhouse-pr.com

WORLD SALES Rapid Eye Movies

Stephan Holl, Stephan@rapideyemovies.de

DISTRIBUTION & FESTIVALS Kinostart in Deutschland im Juni 2020

Rapid Eye Movies

Thorsten Peters, Thorsten@rapideyemovies.de 0221 569579 70

Antwerpener Str. 6 -12

50672 Köln

www.rapideyemovies.de

The production is supported by Film- und Medienstiftung NRW

© 2019 / Kairos Film / Rapid Eyes Movies

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