TWST - Things We Said Today

Andrei Ujică / Romania, France / 2024 / Czech Premiere / 86 min.

synopsis

In August 1965, The Beatles arrive in New York to play their now legendary concert at a sold-out Shea Stadium to fifty-five thousand passionate fans. Outside their hotel, crowds of teenage female fans gather, eager to catch even a glimpse of the four idols. Archival footage from the press conference and television broadcasts soon spins into a narrative based on the autofiction of American poet Geoffrey O'Brien and the biographical accounts of writer Judith Kristen. On the border between reality and fiction, a poetic narrative unfolds, complemented by drawings by French illustrator Yann Kebbi. The context of the film is gradually expanded to include other significant moments captured on television at the time, evoking the spirit of the era and the associated ethos of youth. We are unsure whether the characters are real or fictional as they pass through a rich audiovisual kaleidoscope, guiding us through a lost but ever-present past in our consciousness.

“Someday when we're dreaming
Deep in love, not a lot to say
Then we will remember
The things we said today.”

Source: The Beatles - Things We Said Today

biography

Romanian documentary filmmaker Andrei Ujică (1951) has been working in Germany since the 1980s. He lectures at the University of Karlsruhe and founded the now defunct film institute under the Zentrum für Kunst und Medien. He is the author of Videograms of a Revolution (1992), Out of the Present (1999) and The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceauşescu (2010).