Only Lovers Left Alive

Story

Vampires Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton) have been a couple for several centuries. He’s an underground musician and lives in a dilapidated villa on the outskirts of the bankrupt auto city Detroit, she, well-read and spiritual, in exotic Tangier. Due to the risk of infection and because biting living creatures has been out since the 17th century, the pair live exclusively on blood from blood banks. For a very long time now, Adam and Eve have been observing how the human race is developing and come to the conclusion that its future is bleak. The condition of the “zombies”, as he calls humans, depresses Adam so much that he can no longer travel, so Eve gets on a plane to Detroit. Together they cruise the Detroit streets by night in Adam’s Jaguar, past factory ruins that are the beacons of humanity’s demise, play chess and listen to music. Then Eve’s oddball little sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska) turns up and causes emotional chaos. Vampires have never been as chilled as in Jim Jarmusch’s new film, which was shot partly in Hamburg. The doyen of auteur films adds his usual ironic bite to this lately so overworked genre. Absolute highlight: the soundtrack of Sixties soul and garage punk. PRIOR TO THE SCREENING ON OCTOBER 2ND THE BRITISH ACTRESS TILDA SWINTON WILL RECEIVE THE DOUGLAS SIRK AWARD.

Director

Jim Jarmusch (*1953) is an icon of US independent cinema. He made his name withfilms like Stranger Than Paradise (1984) or Down By Law (1986) and haswon countless awards. His film Ghost Dog wasshown in 1999 at FILMFEST HAMBURG, where he was awarded the Douglas Sirk Prize.The last Jarmusch film to be shown in Hamburg was his vampire drama Only Lovers Left Alive in 2013.