"I've come to be your protector." "Isis, who protects her brother," "who seeks him untiringly," "who makes shades with her feathers and a gentle breeze with her wings," "who collects your flesh and lifts your limbs, and both your eyes, who causes the evening and the morning barque to appear at your head." "You cross the sky with open heart." "The Lake of Knives has grown still." "The night barque has a fair wind for its journey." "The legend of the Nile" "Paul Klee in Egypt" "A film by Rüdiger Sünner" "During the winter of 1928 the painter Paul Klee spent for four weeks travelling in Egypt, fulfilling his long cherished dream." "His expressive eyes showed me the way much better than the outer stations of his journey." "Looking at the same time to the far-away and inside, they told me something about his longing for a world connected to the elementary and the magic more deeply than our Western civilization." "With a small camera and his letters from Egypt I set out for my journey." "I also took along the old Egyptian Book of the Dead, which Klee probably knew." "It describes how Isis searches for her spouse Osiris, who had been torn to pieces by his brother Seth and thrown into the waters of the Nile." "Isis finds the remains and assembles them again into new life." "The reborn God now becomes the Lord of the Realm of the Dead who from now on accompanies the dead on their last journey to the Underworld:" "a story of dissolution and regeneration which according to Egyptian myth everybody must re-enact, after the example of Osiris." "This text not only fits perfectly many of Klee's paintings and ideas, but it also became for me a good guiding star in a foreign and often irritating country." "Cairo, December 25th" "Today I took long walks through the city." "But I looked at all those things from a distance, from the citadel, which offers a grand panorama of the the city." "In the afternoon I went down to the river." "It's huge and the botanical gardens there are splendid." "We're having temperatures like in early summer, everything on the Nile is green and blossoming." "The sailing boat are wonderful." "Your head is anointed, my Lord, when you travel North, like the tresses of an Asian woman." "The Goddess of the Hours inside you accompanies you." "You are the one who crosses the hours." "Call for the ferry," "bind the ropes," "so we may flee this evil land where the toppled stars fall upon their faces, and know not how to rise again." "May you always have air so that you won't be destroyed." "May your body be spared dessication, your ropes loosening." "I start out with chaos which is the most natural thing." "I am calm, because I am allowed to be chaos myself." "This is the maternal hand." "It never begins with a poetic mood, but always with the construction of one or several figures." "So there are lines." "And what other things could a line be?" "A stream into the distance, thought, train, attack, dagger, sting, arrow, beam, knife's edge, scaffold," "the carpenter of all form:" "a plumbline." "December 26th" "In the morning to the Gizeh Pyramids." "Then I had a small dove for lunch." "They stand on slightly elevated ground." "The air there is wonderful." "Anyone arriving from the demented city appreciates it." "Besides, the temperature was so agreeable that I thoroughly enjoyed it." "I achieved a nearly complete victory over the tourist-touts, except when I got up from my seat and forgot my handkerchief." "A clever boy found it and brought it to me:" "one plaster." "One would get stronger impressions if one could stay with a peasant." "But that's impossible of course." "There's so much filth that even I am disgusted occasionally." "When I took the tram to Gizeh yesterday, a thing got in, leathery-yellow and black, dressed in rags." "It sat on the floor, took off its shoes and put them in a basket, then haggled with the conductor, probably about the fare." "After a while, the thing, an old woman, took out a pipe without mouthpiece, filled it, lighted it and began to suck on the thick stump." "Now one might think she was smoking grass, but no, it was exquisite tobacco." "That gives you some idea about the level of culture over here." "One must get used to it." "I think I'm beginning to find my way around Cairo now." "The difference with the rest of North-Africa is the waterway reaching deep into the continent, which brings not only fertility but also traffic." "Thus, more of Africa has come to the Orient than in Tunisia, and this adds a cruel note with a particular emphasis." "I went to some very old sections of the city which made grand pictorial and infernal impressions." "O Lord of the Red Fabric" "who holds sway over the heart's joy." "You who travel over that sandbank of Apophis," "who attaches agan severed heads and fastens necks" "when escaping from wounds." "May you save yourself from the guardians of the pathways," "the butchers with sharpened fingers," "cruel at beheading, who are the followers of Osiris." "Save yourself from the god with the face of a greyhound and human eyebrows," "the guardian of the Fire Lake" "who swallows corpses and tears out hearts," "who wounds without being seen." "Isis, who gives shelter to her brother," "who seeks him untiringly," "who makes shades with her feathers and a gentle breeze with her wings." "I woke up before dawn." "For me, those moments have about them a strange intensity." "The mind is clear - an end in itself." "A widening of the senses." "The past, things dormant," "hidden things, possibilities," "melodies of the past and future, plans without time." "They pass, one after another, and I'm feeling rich among gifts, and must hope." "Then the day awakens, nearness and sharp focus, and interferes." "I close my eyes, so I won't see it, and fall asleep again, heavily, disturbed by dreams, and wake up again, unrefreshed, in the late morning." "Luxor, December 31th" "I travelled during the night and am now in Upper Egypt." "The hotel here is paradise compared to Cairo." "Hell goes on, of course, but one can retreat into the magnificent hotel garden, like a cloister." "The whole day was sunny, roses, carnations and all the blossoms of our spring and summer were around." "Wondrous trees, mostly palms." "The Nile very near, and a huge temple complex." "It doesn't exactly make one feel tall." "Crossed the Nile, early." "A ride to the Valley of the Kings and across the hill to the temples of Thebes." "At first, everything went smoothly as the donkey-driver walked next to me and kept watch." "But later the donkey scented a female and bolted." "I clung to his ears." "The driver couldn't keep up." "January 2nd" "At last your first letter, but all this is obsolete now." "I'd also brought my infection along and in Cairo the dust got into my throat." "But everything's fine here." "Yesterday, I went to the famous Karnak." "Not to be confused with the beautiful place in Brittanny." "Today the garden is like paradise." "It's getting more and more beautiful, sunnier, stronger." "Last stop will be Assuan, where the sun is directly overhead in summer." "As one falls asleep, many things surface as memories." "The most diverse lines, spots, daubs," "wave movement, inhibited, sectioned movement, counter movement," "woven, mortared, scaly, monotone, polyphonic," "lines fading away or growing stronger, the good cause as a guide, even in thickets and twilight." "The caves of the West which you pass by in your barque." "A noise is heard from those caves, like the buzzing of many bees," "like the sound of devouring," "like the voices of people mourning," "like the joyful bellow of human bulls," "like the sound of imploration whose force is great." "A noise is heard from those caves like the scream of a tom-cat," "like the murmuring of the living," "like the cry of a divine falcon, like the cry of a whole nest of birds." "Opened for you are the ways of the Shetit." "Opened for you are the doors of the earth." "We lead you through the districts of Kenset." "You pass along in your mother's thighs." "Assuan, January 8th" "The final thrust into the South is over now, and it was worth it." "The landscape has changed, the hilly desert draws nearer to the river on each side." "New, moreover, is the purer race" " Nubian - and better health and even cleanliness." "Tomorrow, the Northern duties call again!" "I won't conquer all of Africa after all, but turn back before the Tropic of Cancer." "As far as I'm concerned, this trip could go on forever." "Arise," "that you may taste the wind's breath and swallow the North wind," "that you may swallow the backbone and capture the day." "Your head is anointed, My Lord, when you travel North, like the tresses of an Asian woman." "Swallows awaken you who are sleeping." "They raise your head to the horizon." "You cross the sky with open heart," "the Lake of Knives has grown still," "the night barque has a fair wind for its journey." "quoted texts:" "The Egyptian Book of the Dead" "Paul Klee:" "Letters to the family 1907-1940" "Diaries 1898-1918" "Infinite Natural History Creative Confession" "Felix Klee:" "Paul Klee, Life and Work in Documents paintings:" "Engl. subtitles: retail DVD slight corrections: serdar202@KG 2017"