Jesus, Du weisst

Ulrich Seidl

IndieLisboa 2013 •

Áustria, Documentary, 2003, 87′

A film as a confessional. People go to church, sit alone on a pew, pray to Jesus, who is everything to them: father and friend, savior and rescuer, guide and wailing wall. We meet a student who attends mass every day against his parents’ will. He spends all his free time in the church and tells Jesus everything, repents erotic fantasies as well as his dreams of being a hero. A retired chemistry teacher whose partner is cheating on her with another woman, in her prayers yearns for revenge. But isn’t revenge a sin? Like so many others, she comes to church to complain and to pray to Jesus for forgiveness. With formal rigor Ulrich Seidl presents six fragmentary portraits of six believers who ask questions and search for answers. Each of these stories opens an intimate space, permitting us a view of that which can be called God.