Penumbra, 2019-2022

>> Close

Penumbra
2019-2022
1-channel film
Computer-generated and shot on HD
Stereo sound
Aspect ratio 16:9
Loop 1h 26min 55sec

What does the past of a distant future look like? A distant future to which humankind will be driven by the forces of neoliberal capitalism, climate change, populism, and the pervasive intrusion of one’s private sphere through digital technology? Julian Rosefeldt’s 90-minute film Penumbra is not a work of science fiction. Instead, it points to our current situation, albeit within a fictitious framework that paves the way for a paradoxical enigma: who will we be when we are gone?

The new work follows on from 43-minute film In the Land of Drought, 2015/17 – the condensed version of Rosefeldt’s filmic interpretation of Joseph Hayden’s oratorio The Creation. In a similar vein, Penumbra originates from a film work, planned as a visual backdrop for Robert Schumann’s oratorio, Scenes from Goethe’s Faust, at the opera houses in Antwerp, Ghent, and Montpellier (premiere in Antwerp June 2022).

For his two key works of German literature, Faust: A Tragedy, Part I and II (1808 – 1832), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe created a visionary protagonist in the scientist and entrepreneur Dr. Faust. As a character, Dr. Faust anticipated the great issues of our time: capitalism, post-colonialism, the exploitation of nature, and environmental disasters. For the oratorio, Schumann selected a few fragments of Goethe’s masterpiece to compose music for, and for Rosefeldt’s filmic adaptation, the artist fragmented Schumann’s romantic composition to use as a soundtrack.

Akin to In the Land of Drought, the new work Penumbra focuses on the notion of the “after us”. Looking back from a distant, imagined future upon the post-Anthropocene – the aftermath of significant human influence on our planet – the film addresses this problematic relationship between humans and their impact on Earth. Humankind appears to have left for good. A computer-generated visualisation introduces us to their new territory, where they’re found trying their luck on a faraway planet, the desert plains congested with urbanisation. But once again, failure prospers and only some frantically built space settlements seem to grant shelter. On the planet’s surface, abandoned megacities linger within the dystopian landscape whilst artificial circular plantations lurk at their peripheries, nourishing their last inhabitants.

The camera hovers meditatively over the desolate landscape and the ruined megapolis. Connoting surveillance, the satellite/drone/bird’s-eye view removes human perspective, keeping us onlookers at a distance. After flying across what looks like one of the last remaining artificial forest islands, the computer-generated images fade back into real camera footage and we dive deep into the woods where we finally arrive at a hidden techno rave, crowded by young ravers dancing in happy ecstasy from bright daylight into the night in a kind of last escapist ritual.

When writing Faust I, and especially Faust II, Goethe possessed a clairvoyant vision of our time. He foresaw the destructive power of greed, capitalism, and globalisation, and simultaneously celebrated a utopian vision of a better world. Zooming in on this foresight, the searching camera abandons its reliance on computer-generated images to gradually reveal the remaining tenants of the barren landscape. Angles shift, perspectives enlarge, and extreme slow motion accentuates the movements of the raving youth, lost within their state of trance. A hint of optimism unfolds; their escape tentatively weighs against the threshold of their own extinction.

E. Lapper

Produced by Opera Ballet Vlaanderen
Co-produced by Fondazione In Between Art Film and Sammlung Wemhöner

Exhibitions / Catalogues

– Julian Rosefeldt – Nothing is Original, C/O Berlin, May-September 2025 (curated by Sophia Greiff; catalogue)
– Humanity is…, Verpackerei Görisried, May 2024
– Penumbra, Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid, September-November 2021

Literature

Film Credits

Computer-generated segment

Project Lead: Marvin Sprengel
CG Artists: Bertrand Flanet, Elias Kremer, Vincent Maurer, Merlin Stadler
Compositing: Frederik Grytzmann, Andreas Tröger
Additional Texturing: Caroline Keulertz, Annkathrin Kluss
Satellite Imagery Retouching: Mona Keil
Satellite Imagery provided by European Space Imagery and Maxar Technologies
Production Management and Research: Flinder Zuyderhoff-Gray

Parts of the computer-generated segment were produced at the Animationsinstitut of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg

Rave segment

Director of Photography: Christoph Krauss
Costume Design: Birgitt Kilian
Hair & Make-Up: Katharina Rebecca Thieme

1^st AD: Simon Adegbenro
Production Manager: Viktor Jakovleski
Production Assistant: Mayra Magalhaes
Set Manager: Benjamin Sheppard
Ass. Set Manager: Ruben Stallmann
Set PA: Jan Hemayatkar-Fink

Phantom Operator: Marcel Neumann
Drone Pilot: Martin Rinderknecht
Drone Camera Operator: Nikolaj Georgiew
1^st AC: Kai Lachmann
2^nd AC: Christoph Kollmann
Video Operator: Lena Leuschner

Ass. Costume Designer: Susi Hinz
Ass. Hair & Make-Up: Katharina Thiele

DJ’s: Richie Hawtin, Sama’, Fadi Mohem, Stenny

Event Manager: Branimir Peco
Ass. Event Manager: Jennifer de Negri
Guestlist Coordinator: Laura Käding
Guest Coordinators: Ferdinand Klotzky, Katja Burlyga
Production Manager of Richie Hawtin: Chris Lundie
Equipment Rental: FB Event / Fabian Stiehler
Production Drivers: Daniel Janssen, Vincent Lechat
Graphic Design: Anja Lekavski

Postproduction

Editor: Bobby Good
Sound Design: Thomas Appel
Colorists (at Basis Berlin): Steffen Paul, Johannes Röckl
VFX & Online: Sebastian Mietzner

Acknowledgments

At Opera Ballet Vlaanderen thanks to: Jan Vandenhouwe, Katherina Lindekens

At the Animationsinstitut of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg thanks to: Marvin Sprengel, Andreas Hykade, David Maas, Andreas Ulmer, Simone Pivetta, Enzio Probst, Tim Markgraf

Additional thanks to:

Basis Berlin Postproduktion GmbH / Frieda Oberlin, Mathilda Barchmann
Cative Solutions UG / Sebastian Mietzner
Sehsucht Berlin GmbH & Co / Markus Trautmann
Digicopter AirVideo & Foto GmbH
Arri Rental / Ute Baron
Wassili Zygouris

Bobby Good, Jan Schöningh, Flinder Zuyderhoff-Gray, Julius von Bismarck, Hito Steyerl, Janaina Pessoa

Greatful thanks for the creative planning and realisation of the rave in the woods to:

Mikel Hecken & Ayla und Tjioe Meyer, Laura Käding, Viktor Jakovleski, Tobias Staab, Blitz Club / Branimir Peco and Jennifer de Negri, Chris Lundie, Fabian Stiehler, Anja Lekavski, Eleanor Lyons, Sammy Van den Heuvel, Femke Gyselinck

And for the DJ Set to: Richie Hawtin, Sama’, Fadi Mohem, Stenny

Special thanks for the generous support to:

Beatrice Bulgari, Heiner Wemhöner and Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg,

And to the entire film and postproduction team and all the happy ravers.

The rave was produced and shot in the woods north of Berlin, Germany, 2019