The Mies van der Rohes – A Female Family Saga
A female modernist family saga told by the women surrounding iconic architect Mies van der Rohe. His wife Ada, his daughters Georgia, Manna and Traudel and his lover Lilly Reich seize the opportunities of the new age, but also experience the constraints of old patterns. When Mies emigrates to the USA in 1938, they struggle – on their own – through the barbarism of the Nazi era and the war.
Cast
- Georgia van der Rohe
- Katharina Thalbach
- Georgia van der Rohe (jung)
- Anna Thalbach
The Mies van der Rohes – A Female Family Saga
Sabine Gisiger
- Documentary
- Production Country / Year
- Switzerland 2023
- Language
- de., en. OF mit en., de. UT
- Format
- DCP, Both, 81min
1.78:1 (16:9), Discrete 5.1
Director & Crew
Sabine Gisiger
Born in 1959 in Zurich/Switzerland. Studied History in Zurich and Pisa. Trained as a television journalist with Swiss Television and worked as a reporter. Active as a documentary filmmaker and instructor.
Filmography
1995 MOTOR NASCH (Co-Regie), Dokumentarfilm
2000 DO IT, Dokumentarfilm
2003 HOMELAND, TV- Dokumentarfilm
2005 GAMBIT, Dokumentarfilm.
2007 YA SHARR MOUT, TV-Dokumentarfilm
2010 GURU - BHAGWAN, HIS SECRETARY AND HIS BODYGARD, Dokumentarfilm
2011 LA VOCE IN BELLEZZA, TV- Dokumentarfilm
2014 YALOMS CURE, Dokumentarfilm
2014 FRIEDRICH DÜRRENMATT IM LABYRINTH, TV- Dokumentarfilm
2015 DÜRRENMATT, EINE LIEBESGESCHICHTE, Dokumentarfilm
2017 WILLKOMMEN IN DER SCHWEIZ, Dokumentarfilm
2023 DIE MIES VAN DER ROHES, Dokumentarfilm HOF 2023
“Many years ago, in a bookstore in Berlin, I stumbled across a book: Georgia van der Rohe La Donna è Mobile. My Unconditional Life. I [...] was fascinated by the whole of the new view of modernism and of some of its most important protagonists that her narrative opened up for me: Georgia van der Rohe was born the daughter of famous architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
I thought had to go and see the woman who was then 85 years old and living in Berlin, to find out if it were possible to interview her for a film. But I didn’t go to see her because life had other plans. Georgia van der Rohe died in 2008, but I couldn’t get her out of my mind. As a historian and documentary filmmaker, I looked for other ways and decided to stage a fictional interview: With questions I devised, but authentic answers from the written estate.
I was the first person to receive exclusive access to the Mies van der Rohes’ private family archive from Georgia’s sons and her niece. [...] The thoughts and feelings that speak to us from the numerous written legacies of the women touched me deeply. They represent a unique opportunity to tell of the dramatic first half of the last century from a female perspective.”
Sabine Gisiger
- Producer
- Karin Koch