VILLA @ GOETHE: Sebastian Mez

Sebastian Mez will present and discuss the following films:

METAMORPHOSEN
Germany, 2013, 84 min., Russian (with English subtitles)
Director/Producer/Cinematographer: Sebastian Mez Assistant Director/Interpreter: Renata Kosenko Film Editor: Katharina Fiedler Sound & Mixing: Levitate
 

A winter landscape with figures in the southern Ural Mountains captured in high-contrast black-and-white. These images harbour an eerie beauty which, although it cannot be seen or heard, is nonetheless unmistakable. Flanking the course of the river Techa and extending some 23,000 square kilometres, this region is one of the most radioactively contaminated in the world. Regular daily use plus several major accidents at the nuclear plant Mayak, which has been operating in complete isolation from the rest of the world since 1948, have contaminated the water, the soil and the air in the region and exposed the people who live here to a permanent overdose of radiation. Even more astounding is the fact that the local people were given no warning of the effects of radiation contamination following the disastrous chemical explosion of 1957.
After Chernobyl and Fukushima, the Kyshtym accident is widely held to be the third worst disaster in the history of nuclear power. But today, 55 years after these apocalyptic events, the struggle of the people who live here is about more than just survival.

CLEAN UP
Germany, 2008, 9 min., English (with English subtitles).
Film Editing: Sebastian Mez Camera Operator: Julia Schlingmann Production Designer: Janine Dittmann Art Direction: Christoph Arni / Christian Trieloff / Sebastian Mez Producer: Christoph Arni Cinematography: Christian Trieloff Sound Design: Sebastian Mez Director: Sebastian Mez
 
It`s his job to clean this special room, an execution chamber at a state prison in the United States. Every time there is an execution, he has to return this place to its original state. This experimental short film offers an abnormal view on the death penalty.

SEBASTIAN MEZ: Filmmaker and video- and soundartist Sebastian Mez studied at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg, Germany with a focus on film directing.  
His experimental film “Clean Up” has been presented at more than 40 international film festivals, and has received numerous awards.  ’Ein Brief aus Deutschland’, which takes a special approach onto the subject of modern slavery and prostitution in Europe, won the international middle length competition at Visions du Réel in Nyon in 2011.

‘Metamorphosen, his first feature length film, premiered at the Berlinale 2013, followed by numerous screenings and awards at festivals worldwide. His experimental work 'Substanz' was nominated for the Filmkunstförderpreis of the National Gallery in Berlin 2015. Sebastian lives and works in Berlin.