Staub (2007)

Staub: Directed by Hartmut Bitomsky. With Marga Beck, Cornelia Hoepfner, Ayni Iloar, Hiltrud Jehle. A look at the pervasive power of dust from its tiny particles settling in unseen places to its ability to cause illnesses and create the cosmos.

“A documentary film about dust, a material everyone constantly has to deal with and often likes to curse, doesnu0026#39;t seem to provide a lot of entertainment.But director Hartmut Bitomsky has proved in his earlier films – such as u0026quot;Reichsautobahnu0026quot; and u0026quot;B-52u0026quot; -,that such u0026quot;unfilmyu0026quot; material can lead to interesting and thought-provoking results.So it is also here in an attempt to make the invisible visible.The film treats his subject from all different angles: It shows the beauty of dust,the danger of it, the necessity of it for the creation of galaxies and much more.As always Bitomsky is interested in the importance of his subject to the political and military spheres; and here we get quite surprising informations.A decisive part of course plays the daily Sysiphus-like fight with household-dust, which one can only relocate,but not eliminate.The humor in these scenes reminds of those with Shirley Henderson in Sally Potteru0026#39;s strange film u0026quot;Yesu0026quot;.Bitomsky has always been an exponent of a more essaistic than academic documentary film-making; so here you find a lot of digressions and side notes.A little weakness: In some scenes in the industrial and technical parts the film would benefit from more detailed explications for non-specialists.At the end of the film we have learned a lot about an industry producing, analyzing,fighting wit and reprocessing dust.An entertaining lesson!”