Pesquisa avançada

In Step Across the Border two forms of artistic expression - improvised music and cinema direct - are interrelated. In both forms it is the moment that counts, the intuitive sense for what is happening in a space. Music and film come into existence out of an intense perception of the moment, not from the transformation of a preordained plan. In improvisation the plan is revealed only at the end. One finds it. The other connection concerns the work method: the film team as band. Much as musicians communicate via the music, our work, too, was realized within a very small and flexible team of equals. What mattered was exchange. And movement. Sometimes we started filming in the middle of the night, responding to a new idea that had arisen only minutes before. We had a fundamental feeling for what we wanted to do, for what kind of film this should be. And we followed that feeling. It was all very instinctive...

Uli, who works on the Boden farm, is a bawdy, careless, spendthrift. Lectured by his master, he becomes aware that if he is to escape his abject condition, he must reform. Accordingly, he leaves farm girl Anneliesi, turns his back on his drinking companions, and starts working hard. His reputation improves so much so that Joggeli, an old farmer, hires him to restore order in the Giungge farm where chaos is rife. Using strong-arms tactics, Uli attains his ends and soon becomes indispensable. Attracted to the sweet Vreneli, Uli is unfortunately lured by Elisi, the master's scheming daughter.

The story told is based on a Zimbabwean myth. The Rozvi Empire in Greater Zimbabwe is trying to steal the Moon from the sky because it looks like a plate. There is great hunger in the country, but the Moon is a magical woman and she wants to go her own way.

A documentary on the development of cultural institutions in rural environments.