Six minutes. Two continents. One dance that seduced the world.
A brief history of the emergence and artistic innovations of tango in 19th-century Argentina and Europe. The film offers a mosaic of tango melodies, art works, dance performances, historical footage, photographs of Buenos Aires at the turn of the 20th century, and texts by Celedonio Flores and Enrique Santos Discépolo.
Editing
Misselwitz's archival montage is dizzyingly precise.
Direction
GDR filmmaker tackles Argentine passion—politics intact.
Director
Helke Misselwitz
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made in 1985 East Germany, this short emerged when tango was politically complicated—associated with both working-class solidarity and 'decadent' Western culture.
Misselwitz later became a leading DEFA documentarian; this early work shows her signature technique of found-footage poetry already fully formed.
XG
