Sat May 26 | 4:30 pm | VIFC

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Director: Katarina Peters, Germany, 2005, 111 minutes

Filmmaker Katarina Peters is 40 when she falls in love with Boris Baberkoff, a talented and charismatic 33-year-old cellist with a zest for life. Before long, the couple is married and pursuing their shared artistic passions. They travel to New York, where suddenly Baberkoff collapses and the newlyweds’ world is turned upside down. Baberkoff has suffered multiple strokes and is “locked in,” a prisoner of his own brain. He can hear but is unable to move or communicate; his chances of even partial recovery appear slim.

In desperation, Katarina takes up her camera and begins to record a stroke diary, turning to art as a means of survival. With U.S. hospital bills mounting, she’s forced to prematurely transport Baberkoff back to Germany, where he begins to find a path back to the outside world. Katarina meticulously documents Baberkoff’s arduous recovery, capturing both her husband’s extraordinary strength and fragility. But this is also her story. Through a series of impressionistic dream sequences, Katarina recreates her tortured state of mind. Filming becomes a way for them both to cope with the depression, fear and discouragement that threatens their marriage.

Stroke is a remarkably accomplished cinematic tour de force, and a wrenching and captivating story of great love.

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