Dreaming Is Not Sleeping (Rouzbeh Rashidi, 2025)

“Oh, how splendid, how indescribably liberating it would be to plunge my hands into my own being,
traversing the layers of flesh and sentiment, and wrench out this heavy heart...” 

A natural continuation of the spiritually transformative path that started with Elpis in 2023, Dreaming Is Not Sleeping is arguably the most contemplative offering of Rouzbeh Rashidi’s oeuvre so far. Essayistic in its approach, and achingly lyrical at that, the film is a philosophically informed rumination on the very fabric of our existence, shaped by memories, suffering, love, death, and creation as the act of defiance against time. But, first and foremost, it is an ennobling experience, one that is in equal measure difficult to put into words, especially during its transcendental final chapter, set in what can be best described as the astral plane.

Shot amidst the derelict sites across Germany, Poland, Denmark, and Ireland, it transmutes physical places into the hiddenmost recesses of the collective unconscious, their stillness, and secrets engraved on decrepit walls erecting the labyrinths of innumerable selves. Through the hallways of “clairvoyance, impermanence, and shared human struggles”, as well as of perception, nostalgia and meaning, all in the context of cinema or, generally speaking, art, we are assigned a spectral guide (Meister Rumslant as the invisible narrator whose thick accent is irresistibly charming) to lead us into the light... or perhaps, the comforting darkness? It may be that he is but the echo of our own inner voices, as we are immersed into the perspective of an enigmatic entity possessing Rashidi’s steady camera.

By virtue of special lenses, a ripple-like effect is organically achieved, with every single, thought-provoking frame posing as an illuminated portal towards the essence of the image, symbiotic relationship with it, and ultimately, being. The silent, almost motionless tableaux vivants, void of conventional characters and veiled in a muffled aural manifestation of distances, allow for the whispers of the abandoned objects, deep shadows and deceptive reflections to tell of the obscure histories or rather, peculiar feelings that pervaded them. They are employed as the dream-clay in an elaborate process of soul-sculpting that elevates urbex and landscape photography, eliciting questions of our (in)significance in the grand scheme of cosmic things.

Rashidi’s poetic, stream-of-consciousness writing evokes the spirit of Marguerite Duras, whereas the subtle visual distortions bring to mind the finest works of Alexander Sokurov, and yet Dreaming Is Not Sleeping – clocking around one hour – never appears derivative, inspiring us with a myriad of candid absences...

(The review is based on a private screener provided by the author, and the feature is scheduled to premiere at Berlin’s Moviemento Kino on Sunday, April 20, 2025, at 18:00.)