Fugue orientale
( Ein Flüchtiger Zug nach dem Orient )

Ruth Beckermann
1999 - 82 min - 35 mm - Couleur - Autriche

"I will cross the seven seas by ship, a female Flying Dutchman, until one day I drown and am forgotten" (Elisabeth of Austria)
When the camera gazes from the deck of the ship towards the endless horizon of the Mediterranean, the picture of a woman who travelled restlessly across the world takes shape. Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, who gradually disappears out of the pictures as it were : from the age of 30 she refused to be photographed any more.
Ruth Beckermann goes in search of this woman who refused to take her place in the corset of society and who created the myth between a fairy-tale Cinderella and a depressive marionette of the monarchy.
In Egypt, which Elisabeth visited twice, Ruth Beckerman finds the scenes and timeless moments that allow a glance through the surface of meaning.
The montage of images from this journey to Egypt and the interpretation of the written descriptions of Elisabeth and her Greek companion and reader are the components of a reflexive essay on foreignness, on the power and limitations of the image, on myth and reality.
"I would like to travel through the ages, but I can only every film the one that is mine. I can't travel back in time, only to faraway places, in foreign lands... But perhaps the past is a foreign country." (Ruth Beckermann)