Interview with Daniel Zimmermann

Spheres continues along the formal lines of Walden, with the camera slowly rotating on its own axis. In what way are the 360° sequences productive to the exploration of the film’s themes?

Daniel Zimmermann: Drawing from the animistic worldview and perspectivism, the rotating camera gives equal value to everything it encounters, creating symbiotic connections that link human and non-human entities in a non-hierarchical way and placing the audience in the midst of the scene of action. The camera’s constant rotation creates an enduring, almost suction-like effect that gently takes the audience on a journey. In both Walden and Spheres, the main protagonist dies at the onset of the film and is then taken on a journey. While in Walden this journey follows a rational logic, in Spheres it takes on a dreamlike logic.

The continuous rotation of the camera, capturing everything around it, acts as a visual metaphor for the exploration of various events that grapple with existential themes. The use of the rotating camera and certain narrative structure creates an immersive experience, giving the audience time and space to engage with the film’s themes without being exceedingly manipulated by conventional dramaturgical means. On the one hand, this “360° stage” is ideal for developing 10-minute practices for the artists to interact with the corresponding environment. On the other hand, the pull, created by the rotation of the image, carries a somewhat transcendent quality.

The creation of meaning by viewers defies any dictate. There is an unusual sense of freedom in allowing different plot strands to flow into one another. The longer the film runs, the more threads stretch between the sequences. If you give viewers time, they will be able to experience the complex connections that transpire between the sequences.

With Spheres, I didn’t want to create just a film. I wanted to create an experience that takes viewers on a journey through time, space, and identity. I wanted them to feel like they are part of a ritual, question conventional concepts and systems, and share the experience of timelessness, placelessness, identitylessness, and nothingness.

“Every revolution of the camera becomes its own empirical space,” you say in your director’s statement. Could you elaborate on this statement?

DZ: In Walden, everything is meticulously mapped out, including the objects that we have invented and built to keep our production-oriented system running. After this project, I felt the need to look beneath the surface, and for that, we needed a creative…