{"id":805744,"date":"2026-08-07T13:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/805744\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T13:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T13:08:13","slug":"thomas-heise-documentary-ubergang-premieres-at-locarno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/805744\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Heise Documentary ‘\u00dcbergang’ Premieres at Locarno"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThomas Heise<\/a>\u2018s final film, \u201c\u00dcbergang<\/a>,\u201d arrives at the Locarno Film Festival<\/a> as both a portrait of one of Germany\u2019s most influential documentary filmmakers and the completion of a project left unfinished by his death. <\/p>\n

\n\tPremiering in the festival\u2019s out of competition section, the film traces Heise\u2019s life through newly shot footage, archival material and photographs, sewing together a meditation on time and transition.<\/p>\n

\n\tHeise, whose body of work chronicled the lives of ordinary people across East Germany during reunification and the decades that followed, began developing \u201c\u00dcbergang\u201d as a portrait of Berlin\u2019s Sch\u00f6nhauser Allee before his death in 2024. Longtime collaborators Peter Badel<\/a> and Chris Wright<\/a> ultimately completed the documentary, shaping a film that explores the filmmaker\u2019s life and enduring relationship with German history.<\/p>\n

\n\tProduced by Ma.ja.de<\/a>. Filmproduktion, \u201c\u00dcbergang\u201d at once imports you to Sch\u00f6nhauser Allee through patient, black and white street-level scenes of normal life: commuters boarding a tram, quiet revelers at a carnival, a couple in conversation. Voice over paints the picture of the man behind the camera, and through carefully placed interview vignettes of Heise, the observer becomes the observed. \u201c\u00dcbergang\u201d draws together contemporary observations set against Heise\u2019s experiences growing up in East Berlin to shed light on the political and social transformations that defined both his life and art.<\/p>\n

\n\tVariety spoke with co-directors Peter Badel and Chris Wright ahead of the film\u2019s world premiere at Locarno.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe title \u201c\u00dcbergang\u201d suggests a transition or a passage. When did this emerge as the central theme of the film?<\/p>\n

\n\tPeter Badel: Here we are referring to a draft text that Thomas Heise wrote during the preparatory phase of the project. He was drawn to the dual meaning of the term \u201c\u00dcbergang.\u201d The film is largely shot around the station on Berlin\u2019s Sch\u00f6nhauser Allee, a busy interchange between public transport lines, but the title also hints at the idea of change in society. Our film covers the period of transition from East Germany to the fall of the Wall and beyond. That includes the current climate of war and rearmament, and the shift away from the traditional politics of the left and right toward a direction that seeks to make us forget the lessons learned from two world wars and a Europe destroyed by the Nazis. For Chris and me, there was never any other title for the film than the one Thomas had chosen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWas it difficult to preserve Thomas\u2019s artistic voice and vision while creating a new work after his death?<\/p>\n

\n\tChris Wright: Thomas wanted work on the film to continue unchanged after his death. But of course, that was an impossible task, because his death changed everything. We decided it was vital that it become our own film, and that we make our own decisions about how to shape it. But at the same time, everyone working on the film had a long history of collaborating with Thomas. For me personally, that meant I could often almost hear his voice in the edit, saying, \u201cLet\u2019s try a scene like this. Let\u2019s put that in. Let\u2019s leave that out.\u201d His aesthetic had become almost second nature.<\/p>\n

\n\tBadel: Another big factor was Thomas\u2019 personal archive, which his husband Michael gave us full access to. Going through all that material, Thomas remained a critical and productive partner for us even after his sudden death. Of course, we missed his proven ability to cut things and, in doing so, amplify the fragmentary nature of his work. But I believe we remained true to his playful spirit.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did you bring the various elements of the film (new footage, archival material, photos and text) together into a single narrative?<\/p>\n

\n\tBadel: First we explored approaches that proved to be dead ends. I shot lots of interviews with friends and collaborators, for example. We also tried to incorporate too many aspects of Thomas\u2019 work. Then Chris had the idea to take a break and go through all the original archive recordings of Thomas we could find to see how they worked cinematically.<\/p>\n

\n\tWright: I wanted the film to incorporate as much unseen, or hardly seen, material as possible. So there are lots of outtakes (particularly from Thomas\u2019 last film, \u201cHeimat is a Space in Time\u201d), VHS footage we found on tapes and hard drives, diary excerpts, unpublished texts and archive interviews. As much of the film as possible is told through new combinations of his own words and images. The fragmentary montage remains true to his approach. We don\u2019t explain exactly where the materials come from. What is important is the dialogue they enter into with each other. At the same time, it was vital not to make a homage or an anecdotal work. We wanted the film to take a similar approach to Thomas as a character as \u201cHeimat\u201d took toward his own family. We tell a story of lived history, the way the emotions and experiences of a life can be shaped by the politics and society it takes place in.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Peter Badel, Chris Wright<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film\u2019s final scene condenses a great deal of meaning into a single moment. Can you describe how you came across this interview and this quote?<\/p>\n

\n\tBadel: During the many days of filming at Sch\u00f6nhauser Allee station, we frequently encountered Michael, whom we observed (sometimes up close, sometimes from a greater distance among all the passers-by) as he waited for spare change at his spot by the subway stairs. We talked with him about the social divide around the station and discovered that he knew Thomas Heise by sight. He had also heard about Thomas\u2019 death.<\/p>\n

\n\tWright: Time and transience were two of Thomas\u2019 biggest concerns in his filmmaking. And here, it is this homeless man, begging for change, who names them. Thomas often put unnoticed lives at the center of his films. So it only seemed fitting that Michael should have the last words in this film about Thomas.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat do you hope the audience will learn about Thomas Heise through \u201c\u00dcbergang?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBadel: I would be very pleased if Thomas\u2019 remark about this film: \u201cThe author is a character in the film,\u201d has become tangible and vivid through our work. And I hope that even people who don\u2019t know much about him will find his fascinating way of thinking about and presenting time inspiring.<\/p>\n

\n\tWright: I think that, with Thomas, we\u2019ve lost an important critical voice for our times. I hope the film will remind people that it\u2019s vital to keep questioning the status quo. Otherwise, as Thomas says, things can easily change for the worse, and you won\u2019t notice until it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thomas Heise\u2018s final film, \u201c\u00dcbergang,\u201d arrives at the Locarno Film Festival as both a portrait of one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[3500,88,44825,206,342039,342040,342041],"class_list":["post-805744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-chris-wright","tag-entertainment","tag-locarno-film-festival","tag-movies","tag-peter-badel","tag-thomas-heise","tag-u00dcbergang"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}