Tuvalu

Screening on Film

Directed by Veit Helmer.
With Denis Lavant, Chulpan Hamatova, Philippe Clay.
Germany/Bulgaria, 1999, 35mm, color, 90 min.

Tuvalu is a post–Cold War allegory about the transformation of Eastern Europe and the passing of old ways and institutions. Told nearly without dialogue and shot in a style reminiscent of the silent cinema, the film tells the story of Anton, a young man whose blind father manages an old public bath. To please his father, Anton maintains the illusion that the derelict bath is intact and constantly busy. The only guest to come, however, is Eva, in search of a vintage steam engine in the bath’s basement. When the father dies, the old, empty pool dies with him. Anton and Eva take the engine and sail away on Eva’s tugboat to the island of Tuvalu.