Westfalia. 1873. Hans Herberholz is a farmer that returns home after a long working day and discovers that his farm has been plundered. His wife lies dead on the floor and his defenseless daughter is still alive, hiding in a corner of the farm. To avoid the abuses of landowners and thieves, Hans will have to make a decision and marry his daughter to protect his properties against his beliefs, while he tries to find out who his wife’s murdered is.

The medium-length film The Bleak Farm (Der Einsame Hof), by German director Christian Zipfel, manages to draw in the viewer from the first scene. Zipfel uses black and white filming, with a light and shadow work that emphasizes the dark atmosphere of this 30-minute-long film and recalls Dreyer’s imagery.

Christian Zipfel was born in Hattingen, Germany, in 1992. He started his film studies in 2012 at the Film Academy of Cologne. The Bleak Farm is his first medium-length film. He has directed several short films, such as Haut (2014) and Light Game (2014). His documentary Magadan (2016) portrays the period of the Soviet Gulags in Siberia and has been selected to participate in several specialized film festivals.

The Bleak Farm is part of the Official Section of the 9th edition of the International Medium-length Film Festival La Cabina that will be celebrated from the 3rd to the 13th of November and the Filmoteca of Valencia.

THE BLEAK FARM | Christian Zipfel · Germany · 2016 · 30 min