The West Is Alive

1984 • Directed by

Klaus vom Bruch

The West is alive (Der Westen Lebt) is a highly charged work, a powerful visual metaphor of desire within the symbolism of Western cultural mythology. A man and a woman fighting for a kiss collide on-screen with a repeated film fragment of the thrusting pistons of an oncoming train. The couple's erotic interplay is at once passionate, violent and ironic.