New Release: Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen DVD

Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen, an acclaimed 2009 drama film from Germany about the famed 12th century Benedictine nun who was also a Christian mystic, composer, philosopher, playwright, poet, naturalist, scientist, physician, herbalist and ecological activist, arrived on DVD from Zeitgeist on April 19, 2011.

For Vision, New German Cinema filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta (Sheer Madness) reunites with recurrent star Barbara Sukowa (who won Best Actress at Cannes for her performance in von Trotta’s 1986 Rosa Luxemburg) to bring the story of the extraordinary von Bingen to life. Sukowa portrays Hildegard’s fierce determination to expand the responsibilities of women within the order, even as she fends off outrage from some in the Church over the visions she claims to receive from God.

Lushly shot in original medieval cloisters of the fairy-tale-like German countryside, the biography drama serves up a portrait of a woman who has emerged from the shadows of history as a forward-thinking and iconoclastic pioneer of faith, change and enlightenment.

Here’s a list of the special features on the DVD:

• Telluride Film Festival Tribute and Q&A with director von Trotta by Sukowa and professor Annette Insdorf
• writer Gary Giddens’ Telluride interview with von Trotta
• conversation at the Goethe-Institut New York, with von Trotta and writer Robert Boyers
• booklet with Hildegard timeline, location notes and interviews with von Trotta and Sukowa
• original U.S. theatrical trailer

The DVD carries a list price of $29.99.

Buy or Rent Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen
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