Throughout the film, Trezenga weaves together his twin fascinations with the works of German philosopher Martin Heidegger, and Norwegian author and poet Tarjei Vesaas.

“‘Gavagai’ is about poetry and Heidegger/Hölderlin, Godard/Tarjei Vesaas as poets reaching into ‘the abyss,’” Tregenza explains in his director’s commentary. “The method of creation is to employ the language of a poet, Tarjei Vesaas, and the practice of cinema to uncover how Being and death can call for a different, more meditative event. Gavagai has its origin in thoughts on Being. We follow a forest path set forth by Martin Heidegger, not on a country lane in the Black Forest of Germany, but in Telemark, Norway.”

The film is concerned with the impossibility of perfect translation, the movement between media: most literally with a husband’s attempt to finish his wife’s work, and, more abstractly, the filmmaker’s cinematographic application of an unconventional Heideggerian time concept.

¶ 4:19 PM