Cafetería, train station
Fonda de Francia
Street view
Square
Street view
Route
©David Mauas all photos
«Perhaps
the first ever film noir intellectual historical film, Mauas´documentary
is at once beguiling and enlightening» Washington
Jewish Film Festival «David Mauas
is a good disciple [of Walter Benjamin]. Who Killed Walter Benjamin is
not just a documentary about this famous and unclassifiable thinker, but,
first, is a work done with a deep knowledge of the work and stylistic virtuosity
of Benjamin.
It is the product of an hybrid genre between pure documentary and video art devices of which at times gets translated to the display of the Benjamin´s narrative work.
Perhaps useless documentation for historians and criminologists, but valuable for all lovers of the German thinker and every student of communication, visual arts or philosophy. Especially for those who meet these characteristics at once interested in the manner of Benjamin, the interrelations and mutual fruition of all these disciplines»Isaac Risco, Una extraña muerte en Portbou«In a documentary with airs of Mulholland Drive, the director David Mauas narrates his personal investigation, sometimes obsessive, on the circumstances that are surrounding the death of the German philosopher.
Many testimonies entwine, from town neighbors to specialists, who reveal an evidence: it is not possible to prove in an irrefutable way that Walter Benjamin commited suicide» Valèria Gaillard, El Punt «Mauas takes the camera and rolls and rolls. Lets speak those who had listen the story from others, those who lived in that time and remember (…) Walter Benjamin is always present in the film, although his image hardly appears. He lives in others, in their memories or in their imagination…» Lola Huete Machado, El Pais Semanal «The result is a “film noir” that moves between a classic documentary and the video art. In “Who killed Walter Benjamin…” not only is reconstructed the death of the writer but also is recreated “the scene of the crime”» La Vanguardia «With persistence Mauas seizes new relevant details from witnesses of that time which until now has been ignored by the international Benjamin research» Bettina Bremme, Die Tageszeitung «This film is an event, because it reveals how the mysterious death of a German thinker converts a little village of the Catalan Pyrenees to a crossroad of European history» Gregor Ziolkowski, Deutschland Radio«Portbou is a place that reminds us of the death of one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century. It is also the perfect place to plumb the depths of his thought. Visiting Passages, the monument created by Dani Karavan on the hill that dominates the horizon is enough to understand the strength that his memory acquires here. The visit becomes an unforgettable experience. The same can be said of the film Who Killed Walter Benjamin… by David Mauas. This work of art, constructed with the rigor and sobriety of Claude Lanzmann, exponentially multiplies the power of memory. Placing the inhabitants face to face with their recollections of that German professor that took his own life, according to some, or whose life was taken, according to others, or that simply died; memories related to the civil war surface, imbuing the very idea of memory with the moral and political dimension that it deserves»Manuel Reyes Mate, El Periódico de Catalunya Full press dossier (download pdf)
It is the product of an hybrid genre between pure documentary and video art devices of which at times gets translated to the display of the Benjamin´s narrative work.
Perhaps useless documentation for historians and criminologists, but valuable for all lovers of the German thinker and every student of communication, visual arts or philosophy. Especially for those who meet these characteristics at once interested in the manner of Benjamin, the interrelations and mutual fruition of all these disciplines»Isaac Risco, Una extraña muerte en Portbou«In a documentary with airs of Mulholland Drive, the director David Mauas narrates his personal investigation, sometimes obsessive, on the circumstances that are surrounding the death of the German philosopher.
Many testimonies entwine, from town neighbors to specialists, who reveal an evidence: it is not possible to prove in an irrefutable way that Walter Benjamin commited suicide» Valèria Gaillard, El Punt «Mauas takes the camera and rolls and rolls. Lets speak those who had listen the story from others, those who lived in that time and remember (…) Walter Benjamin is always present in the film, although his image hardly appears. He lives in others, in their memories or in their imagination…» Lola Huete Machado, El Pais Semanal «The result is a “film noir” that moves between a classic documentary and the video art. In “Who killed Walter Benjamin…” not only is reconstructed the death of the writer but also is recreated “the scene of the crime”» La Vanguardia «With persistence Mauas seizes new relevant details from witnesses of that time which until now has been ignored by the international Benjamin research» Bettina Bremme, Die Tageszeitung «This film is an event, because it reveals how the mysterious death of a German thinker converts a little village of the Catalan Pyrenees to a crossroad of European history» Gregor Ziolkowski, Deutschland Radio«Portbou is a place that reminds us of the death of one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century. It is also the perfect place to plumb the depths of his thought. Visiting Passages, the monument created by Dani Karavan on the hill that dominates the horizon is enough to understand the strength that his memory acquires here. The visit becomes an unforgettable experience. The same can be said of the film Who Killed Walter Benjamin… by David Mauas. This work of art, constructed with the rigor and sobriety of Claude Lanzmann, exponentially multiplies the power of memory. Placing the inhabitants face to face with their recollections of that German professor that took his own life, according to some, or whose life was taken, according to others, or that simply died; memories related to the civil war surface, imbuing the very idea of memory with the moral and political dimension that it deserves»Manuel Reyes Mate, El Periódico de Catalunya Full press dossier (download pdf)