Atmung

A man (Drall, Blixa Bargeld) and his partner (Ella, Hanna Rollmann) head to the Baltic Sea on a daytrip from Berlin. On the beach in »niemandsland« Zinnowitz, he begins working on a translation of a text and encounters a word he doesn’t understand, »Schenkelatmung«. What follows is a stream-of-consciousness audio daydream that courses from the grains of sand on the beach to the written page to the waves of the sea to a ferry crossing on the horizon and is interspersed with memories interrupted by the reality of the text Drall is translating on Schiffsmotorentechnik (marine engine technology). As he works out the meaning of the text, breaking it down to »breathing«, a radio report regarding the thousands that have been lost at sea trying to reach Europe runs in the background. This sets off the combination of the failing engine due to the improper »Schenkelatmung« and the results of failed engine at sea: desperation, drowning and ultimately, death. Meanwhile, Ella’s thoughts surface and submerge between Drall’s, and the two continue to daydream on and off, with sounds, thoughts, and wordplay intertwining and sometimes mirroring each other across all boundaries. As each continues daydreaming at the beach, the audio-thoughts become more distended, a rubber band stretched to its limits (as is his voice, which alternately becomes slower, and faster), broken down into literal sounds of breathing (both mundane and erotic), contemplation of what it must be to be in that situation of flight, and ultimately, as happens to so many of us at seaside, thoughts that end up drifting across the waves and out to sea. In the end, what remains is his unnerved breathing, and the waves of the sea themselves, which mix to become one, drifting away as they have for billions of years.