Rosa Coeli

A man recalls, in voiceover, his childhood in a Moravian village, to which he returns to bury his father. The story of his family mirrors the turbulent fate of a Central European settlement over the centuries. It speaks of war and migration, of people and nature, of the decline of the Rosa Coeli monastery, and of the healing power of wine.


Whilst Pellandini’s text – interspersed throughout the film – is counter-illustrated by static camera shots of local motifs and hotel interiors, the man’s story pushes its way between the linguistic images of memory like a grotesque. Time and again, apparent connections between word and image intrude, leaving behind – with the constant oscillation between emotion and structure – the disquiet of a cynical game played out against the dialectical depths of history and modernity (Josef Dabernig).