The Warrior and the Empress 2025 |  MiniDV  |  color, sound  |  2026

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​Intended to be a tour of locations depicted twenty-five years ago in the film Der Krieger und Die Kaiserin (Tom Tykwer, 2000), this premise gives way to scenes of everyday life in Wuppertal, Sept 30–Oct 2, 2025. Recorded with a 2003 Canon Optura Xi on the MiniDV format used by amateur contemporaries of Tykwer's film, including my teenage self.

 

In July 2001 I saw the movie in a theater in Evanston, Illinois. Franka Potente plays the role of a woman who falls in love with an ex-soldier after an erotically-charged tracheotomy. I was seventeen and listened to the soundtrack on repeat.

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I see us in our late teens / beautiful and damaged / like the gene for mania, but more fun / than a topless rodeo / Ghosts

–Franz Wright
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