Lawrence von Arabien (OmU)

In the organizer's words:

During the First World War, British officer T. E. Lawrence is sent to the Middle East to support the Arab tribes in their uprising against the Ottoman Empire. On his journey through the vastness of the desert, he grows into a charismatic, almost messianic leader who manages to unite hostile tribes and achieve spectacular military successes. But the more Lawrence mediates between British interests and Arab hopes, the more he falls into a vortex of inner turmoil, megalomania and self-doubt.

This monumental and historical film is considered one of the greatest epics in film history - both artistically and politically. In T. E. Lawrence, David Lean portrays a figure caught between heroic myth and inner disintegration, while reflecting on the relationship between the individual, history and colonial power. The desert becomes an existential space of experience: endless, sublime and at the same time hostile to life. It embodies the border to freedom and nomadism as well as isolation, powerlessness and being at the mercy of an overwhelming nature. The visually overwhelming desert scenes become a metaphor for the tension between colonialism, self-seeking and megalomania.