2025 | Germany, Austria | Documentary,Experimental,Archival,Short

A Provenance (2025)

  • English - 14 mins
  • Director | Katharina Bayer, Jyrgen Ueberschär
  • Writer | Katharina Bayer
  • Producer | Katharina Bayer, Jyrgen Ueberschär

STATUS: Released

playlists

This film is currently not available.   

Through the vanishing of 32 porcelain chess pieces, the film follows the fate of a Jewish collection looted by the Nazis, revealing the profound tragedy of expropriation, the complexities of provenance, and institutional complicity. Using archival images, the resonant sounds of porcelain, and a real search notice, the film employs an experimental cinematic language to explore the Gustav von Klemperer porcelain collection’s ongoing legacy of loss, closely linked to the Dresden State Art Collections in Germany—one of the world’s leading museum institutions. A PROVENANCE is a silent film—without being silent.

Expropriation Archive Antisemitism Holocaust Poverty Wealth Classism Family Fanaticism Extremism Flight Migration Found Footage Money Capitalism Consumerism History Past Time Homeland Identity Inclusion Discrimination Minorities Jewish Life War Conflict Peace Crime (Criminality) Human Rights Democracy Nationalism Nazism World War II Philosophy Morality Politics Portrait Biography Religion / Faith State / Bureaucracy Trauma / Crises Loss / Farewell Science
Issues