Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting | LEFFEST - Lisboa Film Festival

Queen Charlotte has loved the great Enlightenment philosopher Leibniz ever since she was his student. As Queen of Prussia, she yearns for his wise answers to life’s big questions – that's why she commissions a portrait of him. Edgar Reitz depicts the portrait sittings as a series of passionate debates between the philosopher and artist. However, only the female Dutch painter Aaltje van der Meer is able to challenge Leibniz with her unwavering love of art. Aaltje’s Leibniz portrait, which came to be recognised as a masterpiece of Baroque painting, is still lost to this day.

Duration: 104’
Production year: 2025
Country: DE
Language: DE Subtitles: PT

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13:00

São Jorge Cinema

Room 3

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Edgar Reitz

Born in Hunsrück, Germany, Edgar Reitz (b. 1932) directed his first feature film, Mahlzeiten (Table for Love), in 1967. Awarded at the Venice Film Festival, it was a defining work of the New German Cinema that emerged from the Oberhausen Manifesto. Over the following decades, Reitz not only directed several films but also published essays and books on film theory and aesthetics. In 1995, he founded the “European Institute of Cinema, EIKK” in Karlsruhe, which he directed until 1998. Among his most important films are Cardillac (1969), Die Reise nach Wien (1973), and the Heimat trilogy, consisting of 30 individual feature-length films that together form one of the longest narratives in cinema history. Over the years, he has been honoured by several universities and has received awards at major European film festivals, including Berlin and Venice. In 2006, he was also awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In 2013, Reitz was a guest of the LEFFEST, where he presented Heimat – Chronicle of a Nostalgia. After a decade away from filmmaking, he returned in 2024 with the documentary Filmstunde_23, co-directed by Jörg Adolph, and now returns to fiction with Leibniz – Chronicle of a Lost Painting, about the German philosopher.