Foreign Travel

A small circle of friends and acquaintances in Berlin meet off and on over the course of a year. Part of a book club cultivated by Leonie (co-writer Leonie Rodrian), they tackle the work of magical realist novelist Anna Maria Ortese (The Iguana), occasionally convening as the seasons change to chart their progress and discuss the writer’s themes and literary style. Yet their conversations also reveal the loose-knit group’s alternating feelings of connection and dislocation, as well as the search for meaning and structure in the writings we absorb. The latest compact feature from American filmmaker and translator Ted Fendt (Outside Noise, NYFF59), lovingly shot, as ever, on 16mm, takes the question of realism and authenticity in art as a starting point for a gentle exploration of the time, space, and syntax of life and literature.