Watch Over Me (Farida Pacha and Lutz Konermann, 96 min, 2021) is available for viewing in Germany from 2.00 PM CET on Friday, 29th October until 2.00 PM CET on Tuesday, 2nd November.
The film will be screened at the Lumière on Monday, 1st November at 7.30PM
Synopsis: In the end, being there is all that matters. Mani, Sini and Dr. Reena are a team of counselor, nurse and doctor working for a palliative care organisation in New Delhi. Within 48 hours of receiving a call through the helpline, they reach out to provide medical care and emotional support through weekly home visits. Their job is not an easy one because they can’t offer the one thing which patients and their families are desperately looking for – a cure. What they can offer instead is to assist the patient in accepting that dying is a normal process, a part of life.
Director Farida Pacha and cinematographer Lutz Konermann in conversation with Emilija Zabiliuté (University of Copenhagen)
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National Award winning documentary filmmaker, Farida Pacha was born in Mumbai, India in 1972 and studied filmmaking at Southern Illinois University, USA. Her debut feature documentary, My Name is Salt (2013), has screened at over 80 festivals and won 34 awards including the main prizes at IDFA, Edinburgh, Hong Kong, Madrid and Mumbai film festivals. Interested in exploring the human condition, Farida approaches reality in a poetic and exploratory way. She relies on a distinctive observational style to tell intimate stories that slowly unfold over time. |
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A multiple award winning director, screen writer, cinematographer and producer, Lutz Konermann has been credited on more than a hundred fiction and documentary films, including international co-productions. Watch Over Me is the latest documentary in a long-standing collaboration with Farida Pacha. The cinematography of her feature-length debut, My Name is Salt, won him several awards, amongst which the prestigious German Camera Award in 2014. |
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Emilija Zabiliūtė (PhD) is an anthropologist working on care, illness, social and health vulnerabilities and kinship among India’s urban poor. She is interested in how experiences of health crises and poverty crises rearrange social relationships, ethics of care and redefine possibilities for life. Her research explores public health, chronic illness, and everyday economies and transitions to cashlessness in urban India. She has published academic journal articles and opinion pieces on community care ethics, gender, chronic illness, urban poverty and everyday digital payments in urban India. She is based at the University of Copenhagen and University of Edinburgh. |
Screening Link: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/watchoverme/
Please use the promo code cr0ss1ngs to avail the film free of charge. A registration with the platform Vimeo will be necessary. Due to licensing restrictions, the film can only be watched from Germany.