DAS GETRÄUMTE ABENTEUER (THE DREAMED ADVENTURE) © Bernhard Keller
A look back at the filming of Valeska Grisebach’s Das geträumte Abenteuer (The Dreamed Adventure)
After Western, Valeska Grisebach is back In Competition with her latest feature film Das geträumte Abenteuer (The Dreamed Adventure). The film follows Veska, an archeologist working in a town on the Bulgarian border with Greece and Türkiye. There, she crosses paths with an old acquaintance, Saïd, and this reunion gradually draws her back to the dark corners of her past. This is a look back at a film shoot… that is as close to reality as it can get.
“What I like is this tension between what we write and what happens.” We could say that Valeska Grisebach’s filmmaking is a type of documentary cinema. In Das geträumte Abenteuer (The Dreamed Adventure), the director aspires for a cinema based on an open method centered on dialogue and observation. Even the screenplay is unconventional and rather involves “prose”, situations and directions, which take shape when places and people are added.
The choice of her actors illustrates this approach. Valeska Grisebach works almost exclusively with non-professional actors. “It wasn’t a question of ideology,” she clarifies, “It was simply because it made sense with my way of working.” There were over a thousand women who auditioned, yet it was a chance encounter on the street that stood out. “We met Yeva (the lead actress playing Veska) on the street. I was impressed by her elegance and charisma.”
Reality is therefore not part of the set, it acts. It tweaks the lines, moves intentions and can even rewrite. “People tell stories, show aspects of their personal lives, and this also alters the genre,” she reveals. However, the shooting isn’t left to improvisation. The unexpected does occur, but it falls within an already established framework. What really counts is what’s available.
This way of working is an extension of a career starting from her early days in the documentary world, the legacy of which Valeska Grisebach continues to defend. For her, making films is about getting out, meeting and observing. Since Western, Bulgaria plays a central part in her films, a choice that is anything but trivial. “It was clear from the start that I would go back,” she explains. This going back is part of a broader reflection on Europe and its divisions. “When I was in Bulgaria, I realized how limited my view on Europe was.”
“I believe that making films is above all about making contact with people. And sometimes, it’s about not knowing everything.” And that’s what makes her films so beautiful.
