The Sun Sets Like A Scar

In the summer of 2023, I had flown to Berlin to attend a celebration of life for a friend and fellow filmmaker. While there, I was struck by the blatant continuation of an East/West demarcation in the country. Although the Wall had fallen decades ago, the social, cultural, political, and economic divisions still exist in Berlin.

However, what surprised me most was that the differences between the former East and West Germany became exceptionally stark the further one drifted away from the roaring urbanity of Berlin. A West that is flush with capital but blinded by individualism and an East that is economically poorer but replete with the collective spirit was like night and day in the countryside. A film began to form in my head as I explored the remote villages only serviceable by exiting a train, strapping a pack to one’s back, and walking a dozen kilometers. I was never more thankful that I always travel with a camera.

This film explores the afterlives of socialism in Germany using the megalithic statuary of its largest figure: Vladimir Lenin. By employing, as a narrative fulcrum, the oft-forgotten poem by the master Langston Hughes, I try to express both the nostalgia and melancholy of a community’s shattered past and remembered future.