Based on a free interpretation of Gustav Mahler´s Song Cycle by the same name and a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, this multiple award winning film is a striking example of Titus Leber´s approach to visualise classical music. Using his so called “multi-layer-method” to superimpose several image layers the author takes us in a dream-like lamentation-quest of a mother's winter-journey searching for her child who has been carried off by the Angel of Death.
In this experimental film, Franz Schubert, on his deathbed, hallucinates about his life. Images are superimposed, one upon the other, multiplying as one hallucination follows another. His difficult relationship with his mother and his excellent one with his father are meditated upon as he walks down a rural lane, and scenes from his operas appear.
A young man, the soldier and bachelor type, is looking for Anima - the eternal unattainable female who alternately appears as a virgin, harlot, mother, saint but also as a witch. In his illusions and visions made up of images which are multi-layered and ambiguous, Anima changes from a romantic ideal to a technically two dimensional duplicate which can be reproduced and is half woman, half sewing machine.
