Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch - Das grosse Spiel Film

The Swiss film pioneer Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch (1917-2003) followed unconventional paths all her life. Thedaughter of Russian Jewish immigrants grew up in Zurich. She married one of Herman Hesse's sons and hadthree children with him. Influenced by the artistic work of her parents, she worked first as an illustrator, thenlater as reporter and photographer, always determined to maintain her independence. At the age of fifty, shebegan to make films. Her very first experimental films brought her invitations to international film festivalsand were extremely successful abroad. But in the male-dominated Swiss film scene of the Seventies, she hadto fight for recognition of her lyrical work. Support for her playful, unconventional films was denied her.Nevertheless, Isa Hesse continued to experiment consistently, daring as a 67-year-old to try the new mediumof video. She has left us with a manifold and timeless collection of film and video achievements. Anka Schmidbrings us closer to the person and personality of Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch in the same artistic style: playfully,she intertwines archive material, clips from the original works and interviews with companions – creating ashimmering and fascinating portrait of this extraordinary artist.