Description
Set to Shostakovich and to a mother’s ragged breathing — there is not a word in the film — the camera watches a human being come into the world. Less concerned with physiology than with the parents’ strain, Frank treats the birth as one of the central mysteries of existence.
About the director:
Herz Frank
Born 17 January 1926 in Ludza, Latvia.
He trained as a lawyer. After graduating from an infantry officers’ school he served in Transbaikalia. He worked as a journalist, photo-reporter, and advertising artist in Chita, Vladimir, and Riga. From 1962, he was a screenwriter and director at Riga Film Studio. From 1993, he lived in Israel and Latvia. He taught at the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors, at film schools in Germany, and at the Jerusalem Cinematheque.
One of the founders of the Riga school of documentary filmmaking, Frank created more than 30 films, winning accolades at festivals around the world. Among the works that have become landmarks of documentary cinema are Ten Minutes Older, The Last Judgement, and Once There Were the Seven Simeons (with Vladimir Eisner). Author of the books Ptolemy’s Map (1975) and Look Back at the Threshold (2009).
Herz Frank died on 3 March 2013.