Synopsis

Music is a world in itself

A language beyond understanding

A labyrinthine journey against the backdrop of an abandoned church, during which such people as opera director Peter Sellars, writer Anna Enquist, and dancer Emio Greco relate their special relationship with the music of Bach, surrounded by both the soloists of conductor Pieter Jan Leusink’s Bach Choir & Orchestra of the Netherlands and a group of homeless people which serves as their audience.

Others tell us about their relationship with this piece as well. Among them opera director Peter Sellars, chorus director Simon Halsey, writer Anna Enquist, choreographer and dancer Emio Greco, and members of the homeless choir De Straatklinkers. We visit them in their house, at work, or other places, and also meet them in the dilapidated church.

‘The film is a hallucinatory trip through the monument that is Bach’s music and the character’s poignant stories.’

‘The St Matthew Passion makes people experience something they couldn’t bear to hear if it were said in plain language.’