Alison Kuhn’s short film THE SWARMERS on 3sat

Alison Kuhn’s short film THE SWARMERS (56th Hof International Film Festival) can be seen at 10 pm on Saturday, 26 November 2022 in the KlassiXS series on 3sat, and on demand.

The director tells the story of Karla with quiet mastery. Karla is new at the traditional boarding school “Sankt Severin”. Because she breaks the nose of Pombert, a popular classmate, during an argument on her very first day, her social expulsion is pre-programmed – but she is also ordered to take care of the school’s beehive. Although this task is initially intended as punishment, Karla identifies more and more with the fragile bees that have to die as soon as they sting.

The short is based on the novella “Die Turnstunde” by Rainer Maria Rilke (1902), which tells the story of a pupil’s death during a gymnastics lesson at St. Severin military academy.