This film is much too long unless you are fascinated by the work of Anselm Kiefer, the German artist whose monumental structures Sophie Fiennes clearly finds deeply impressive. But, in her defence, if you are going to make a full-length documentary feature of this kind, you might as well go the whole hog.
Kiefer, who once photographed himself doing Nazi salutes to embarrass his post-fascist countrymen, moved from Germany to Barjac in France halfway through his career. There he found a silk factory and outbuildings and dug out a network of underground tunnels before building a series of installations on the site. We see him working with French handymen smashing glass, burning books and erecting weird-looking steel and concrete buildings.
Ligeti is on the soundtrack and Fiennes’s camera watches with almost reverent intent as Kiefer goes about his magnum opus.
It’s a world by itself, which has more than vague connections with the title. You either accept it or you don’t. There’s certainly an hypnotic quality as Fiennes simply sits and watches an artist she admires at work.
Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow
Cert: U
