Timau
/7
- Timau
- 1998
- 16mm film transferred to video, b&w, sound
- 20min
In Josef Dabernig’s and Markus Scherer’s film "Timau", three men drive in a car listening to Italian music mixed with interconnecting wire sounds. After a while, they park their car and unload heavy briefcases. What looks like a friends’ journey filled with fatigue at the beginning, turns into a grotesque scenario of fastidious action. Suspense evolves when the three men walk up the mountain on a steep mountain path. Partially dangerous scenes do not seem to harm the three mountaineers, of whom one has to use ski poles due to a physical challenge. With their equipment, they not only climb up the mountain, but also have to pass through a dark cave until they finally reach an alpine cabin in order to maintain a telephone booth. Dabernig/Scherer’s film connects to a modernist tradition in filmmaking with long scenes and stark black and white contrasts. Starting off like a road movie, the motif of isolation is kept throughout the film, which ends with an ironic twist as soon as a close-up on the men’s jackets reveals the logo of the former Austrian post and telecommunication service company. W.S.