Private Project

darksome blooming heavenly

This coming-of-age animation reinterprets the romantic art fairy tale ‘Hyacinth & Rosenblüthchen’ by Novalis. The narrative focus of this adaptation is on the inner discourse of the maturing youth Hyacinth. The confrontation with himself and his nature is reflected by the wanderings within his emotional world. Typical romantic themes are taken up. In this film, too, the blue flower stands as a symbol for longing, love and wandering, for emotional depth and melancholy.

The animation mainly depicts a part of the fairy tale: the inner life of the protagonist. The emotional development is shown in the first-person perspective. The storyline of the fairy tale is summarised on a linguistic level. The protagonist's moods are visualised in colour and imagery through changing, surreal landscapes. Flora and fauna, movements and textures also describe the protagonist's state. The vocal and musical accompaniment conveys his state of mind in an atmospheric sense.

This film is an experiment in which emotions are made visible. It is about an intuitive understanding and sensitivity for another person. External appearances are deliberately avoided in order not to interpret things in a self-focussed way and to view differences without judgment. It is about an encounter through empathy and the attempt to accept otherness. This could give stories and fairy tales the space to be perceived from a direct perspective and make them more "grown-up".

  • Sabrina Halbei
    Director
  • Georg (alias Novalis) Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg (*1772-1801)
    Text (art fairy tale)
  • Marie-Luisa Ehrlich
    Music
  • Sabrina Halbei
    Voice
  • Sabrina Halbei
    Producer
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    finster blühe himmelvoll
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    art fairy tale, art, romantic age, surrealism, fantasie
  • Runtime:
    8 minutes 13 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 30, 2024
  • Country of Origin:
    Germany
  • Language:
    German
  • Shooting Format:
    MP4
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Folkwang Universität der Künste
Director Biography - Sabrina Halbei

My name is Sabrina. I was born in Hagen in 1982 together with my twin sister. My path my growing up meant separation and arrival at the same time. Today I live with my two animals in North Rhine-Westphalia.

I spent my childhood in an idyllic small town. Our family constellation was unconventional. I grew up with my young mother, my grandmother and a couple who were friends of my grandmother. We lived right next door to each other, so my sister and I always had a contact person for all matters. I grew up in an environment where everyone said hello to everyone else, people from everyday life got talking to each other or had a chat with someone at the kiosk round the corner. There was a grove in the street where I lived. I played there as a child, we built booths, fooled around and used nature as a playground and for our imagination. It was a very nice time. I felt protected and at ease. My sister and I formed a unit at that time. It was a feeling of an almost permanent presence of another part of me. As if there were three parts, hers, mine and a kind of intersection, the almost identical parts that we both carried within us. I knew every meaning of her facial expressions, gestures and sometimes even thoughts and vice versa. Then there was the part that remained hidden to both of us. This part grew with puberty and this shared awareness of each other slipped away.

After moving to Hesse, we both graduated from high school in Giessen. After that, we physically went our separate ways. In Munich, I completed a commercial apprenticeship in an advertising agency after 2.5 years of training. Some time later, and back in my home town of North Rhine-Westphalia, I started studying cultural economics at the University of Duisburg/Essen, but dropped out early. I was 25 years old at the time. Another turning point in my life: people who were important to me, who I thought would live forever, left me. I suffered my first major and very real loss of a dear and important person. I also lost a part of my childhood with him. My loved one died alone in the presence of his nearest and dearest. I realised how much we ultimately live alone within ourselves and how important it is to connect with our peers. Three years later, my beloved grandma left me.
I was lost for quite a while afterwards. Many things seemed pointless or staged, or both. I had to give up my athleticism and the career path I chose on a makeshift basis was not the right one for me. Nothing felt good, a lot of things were meaningless but important at the same time. It was a very confusing time. There was a lack of stability in my life and I finally started to change direction.

In this phase of my life - I was in my early/mid-30s - thoughts from my childhood often came back to me. I started collecting children's books because they gave me a feeling of security and an intact world. Finally, I started to illustrate, to write and to read my texts to myself. I took creative visualisation courses and some acting lessons. Today I am 42 years old. I work for an IT service group in a great team, with varied tasks in which visualisation and communication play important roles. I also studied full-time and graduated from the Folkwang University of the Arts last year (2024). Now a new phase begins.

I now see the world through the eyes of my child self and, if I have to, through the eyes of an adult - whatever that means. Inside, I am my world, it is as big as my imagination. On the outside, I am small, tiny, a speck of dust between the forests of this earth and the boundless ocean. A tiny individual, individual in being and in life a part of the whole world.

What cannot find words should be perceived differently. My artistic fascination lies in the idea of boundless or detached thinking. And so I try to discover an exchange that makes things visible that are not tangible. It is important to bethink oneself, to perceive, to empathise, to be empathetic and open. The most important thing about us is inside us. It should become visible.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

The film is also available with English subtitles on request. I can't upload a second version here.

At Filmfreeway, the original version is available in German without subtitles. This is because the focus when watching is on the colors, images, music and voice. Subtitles distract from the mood. A translation is also included in the file folders.