Jana spends her days cleaning the studios of a ballet school while caring for her ailing mother. Her life is defined by repetition and obligation while her own aspirations have been carefully folded away through countless acts of self-denial. Responsibility has taken the place of longing and routine has become a form of quiet self-erasure.
Within the ballet school, Jana moves invisibly among bodies trained for grace and expression. She observes the dancers from the margins, always present yet never participating. Their movements awaken something dormant in her, a life she was never allowed to fully inhabit. As fragments of the past begin to surface, Jana becomes increasingly aware of the self she has been shedding over time. Her mother’s history as a dancer is not only an inheritance, but a mirror, reflecting both what was lost and what remains unspoken.
In stolen moments, Jana begins to imitate the dancers’ movements. She moves hesitantly at first, but then as if her body remembers what her conscious mind has long suppressed. When Jana finally dances to the same music her mother once did, imitation transforms into communion. Past and present collapse into one another, restraint dissolves, and movement becomes an act of release.
Credits of the crew and cast:
CREW
Director: Else de Waal @elseviderelse
Director of Photography: Julian Wirth @julian_wirth_
Producer: Celine Scheb @celinescheb
Script: Cindy Feigi @cihindy
1st Assistant Director: Rocco Moreno @rocco.moreeno
Script Continuity: Asfaha Kindishe @asfa_kadabra
1st Assistant Camera: Emanuil Martinov @emo_martinov, Tobias Eisemann @tobi.smnn
2nd Assistant Camera: Monica Gatzka @monika_spn, Emma Bückle @zacetek
Gaffer: Leon Husemann @leon_husemann
Sparks: Johannes Haspel (no instagram), Alexander Isbrecht @sbrcht.photos, Ekaternina Gradoboeva @katarina_grad, Monika Gatzka @monika_spn
Sound: Korbinian Schmidt @ks8851012, Benedikt Arnold @benedikt.arnold
Set Design: Anna Bodden @an.bodden
Set Design assistants: Alexander Triebel @aleexxcc_, Alessia Reithofer @alessia_rth, Banu Tabrizchi @banu_galerie
Costume: Emma Kindermann @emma_loves_england, Jana Kopp @jana.kkp
Make Up & Hair: Ceyda Meral @ceyda.meraki, Zoe Christidis @zoe.christidis
Set-AL: David Barth @david.ba00
PA: Fanny Matena @fannymatena, Michael Berta @michaelg.berta
BTS: Josepha Stolz @josvpha
Post Production: Julian Wirth @julian_wirth_
CAST
Jana Finkbeiner: Anna Aurora Setzer @anna.aurora.setzer
Viktoria Finkbeiner: Britta Werksnis (no Instagram)
Young Viktoria: Paula Schmieg (no Instagram)
Double Jana: Julia Buhl @julia._744