Wolfskers

Eagle’s nests and bunkers

After Mefisto for ever (2006), Guy Cassiers is working on Wolfskers, the second part of a trilogy devoted to the discordant relationship between art, politics and power. Whereas Mefisto for ever showed an artist who allows himself to be seduced and corrupted by power, Wolfskers focuses on those in power themselves.

Just like the Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov (Moloch, Taurus and The Sun), Guy Cassiers chooses Hitler, Lenin and Hirohito as his main figures. He shows them in their loneliness and their passivity, while around them swarms a bustling court. These courts are set at three different spatial levels: that of Hitler in his eagle’s nest, that of Lenin in the countryside and that of Hirohito in his underground bunker. The cultural differences between these three worlds – Germany, Russia and Japan – are articulated by the music, visual technology and other means.

Wolfskers (Deadly Nightshade) or Atropa belladonna is an extremely poisonous plant: its berries look very tasty, but to eat them means certain death.