Im Dickicht

“Like in a dream, shadowy landscapes pass by. Time and again, the silhouette of a decaying, overgrown ammunition hall breaks through the image. The gaze drifts toward the sky, searching for stability, only to lose itself once more in the dense forest. Katharina Pichler’s experimental film Im Dickicht unfolds a subtle, almost eerie tension through its alienated visual language and uses the forest as a metaphor for the complexity of human perception.” (Vienna Shorts 2025/ Louise Linsenbolz)

:::

Blurred edges at unexpected points, shadows that appear unnaturally, and unsettling lighting conditions all hint at images possibly generated by artificial intelligence. However, in this film, abstraction is achieved through physical techniques—serving as an experimental exploration of the in-camera effect—through the manipulation of the image with liquids and further alterations of speed. The film deliberately engages with these alienating forms to explore their expressive potential. The flickering, hazy, and overlapping images of forests and meadows become almost unrecognizable, forming only faint outlines. In this way, the term Dickicht (Thicket) finds its resonance within the film’s montage.

:::