Erwin

Jan Soldat, D/AUT, 2020, 16 Min, OmeU

Ground Floor Resident

Jan Soldat, D/AUT, 2020, 48 Min, OmeU

Jan Soldat’s cinematic confrontation with people, whose sexual practices mostly banish them to the heteronormative shadows, comprises 30 short and medium-length works made over the past two years. His approach is always undisguised and characterized by empathic curiosity. The sexual serves as a catalyst to report on complex realities of life, the abysses and the beauty of human existence. Erwin lives in a trailer in front of his house. Two webcams make him visible to potential sex partners. In dialogue with the filmmaker, we learn about his great loves and difficult family circumstances. The precise, mostly static 4:3 mini DV images, like in › Ground Floor Resident ‹, place the protagonist’s body in a symbiotic relationship to the narrowness of the room. Heiko lives on 195 euros a month in his ground floor apartment in Berlin. He loves to urinate anywhere. Soldat lets him act his everyday life, and you can feel the valuable trust Heiko has in him – and gives us access to a fateful biography and a resilient figure. (bs)