Anastasia Kudelka

Returnee Willy von Mühlenbeck has to realize that his evil brother Martin has risen to become the head of the industrialist family, while their ailing mother is in the hands of sinister doctors. When he falls in love with the terminally ill Els, fate takes a tragic course.

Egomania is a visually stunning end-of-the-world melodrama about lust, jealousy and murder set amidst solar eclipses, orchestral chants and the distant thunder of the boiling sea. The film’s characters – riddled with unconscious desires – find themselves imprisoned on an island. Drawing parallels to the work of British filmmaker Derek Jarman and staring Jarman’s actress-muse Tilda Swinton, Schlingensief’s raw and almost mythological film stands in contrast to his more offensive efforts.

This black and white silent film with music by Helge Schneider, starring Udo Kier as a vampire and Alfred Edel as an Indian chief was commissioned by the Filmmuseum Düsseldorf to inaugurate their cinema organ. The look and feel of the film stems from the silent film era, but the camp style and over use of clichéd characters bears the trade mark of Schlingensief all over. “I love all things kitsch, like opera, and I feel inspired by music. I was interested in silent film but not a great deal”, said the director.