Auslandsreise

In his fourth feature, Ted Fendt once again creates a portrait of a set of people linked together by friendship. At its heart is Leonie, who spends a year moving through the texts of Anna Maria Ortese. A loose reading group consisting of Florian, Alejo and Hanna joins her on her endeavour. Different seasons and thoughts duly unfold around Berlin’s Chamissoplatz. Fendt shines a spotlight on many small narratives and allows fleeting moments to manifest, captured on 16mm stock at once glowing and matter of fact. Florian looks for a flat without success, Alejo has moved from Argentina to Berlin, Hanna is soon to be a mother. Anna Maria Ortese’s books form vanishing points that simultaneously function as an invitation to reflect: who likes to be led up the garden path by literature? How do realism and fantasy merge? In the meantime, a long conversation between Leonie and Ortese translator Sigrid Vagt becomes the film’s centrepiece, making the mysterious author tangible and spurring Leonie on. Auslandsreise shows a search that takes place in cafés and courtyards, in sentences both spoken and written. Everyday life and literature intertwine. A distillation of life. (Carolin Weidner)

Ted Fendt is a filmmaker, translator and projectionist born in Philadelphia, PA. Between 2012 and 2018, he made a series of short and long narrative films in the South Jersey/Philadelphia area with local, non-professional casts, funded by his work as a projectionist in New York City. Since 2018, he has resided in Berlin, where he has made three films to date.

Director Ted Fendt. Screenplay Ted Fendt, Leonie Rodrian. Cinematography Jenny Lou Ziegel. Editing Ted Fendt. Sound Design Jan Pasemann. Casting Ted Fendt. Producers Ted Fendt, Hans Broich. Executive Producers Hans Broich, Ted Fendt. Production company Superzoom Film (Berlin, Germany). With Leonie Rodrian, Florian Model, Alejo Franzetti, Hanna Döring, Mia Sellmann, Sigrid Vagt.

Films: 2012: Broken Specs (short film). 2013: Travel Plans (short film). 2015: Going Out (short film). 2016: Short Stay (Berlinale Forum 2016). 2018: Classical Period (Berlinale Forum 2018). 2021: Outside Noise. 2023: Unglückliche Stunde / Unhappy Hour (short film). 2026: Auslandsreise / Foreign Travel.