PLATAFORMA 2012

Set during the First World War, The Corpse Photographer tells the story of two protagonists: Stefan Adler, a brilliant Viennese photographer hired to photograph the corpses of the children of the Austrian high society who died during the Austro-Hungarian siege of Belgrade; and Arthur Klammer, a young soldier, nihilistic and introverted, forced to take part in a conflict he does not understand—a war in which there is no redemption or purification, only intense and unjustifiable pain.

After the outbreak of the Great War, Adler carries out his work with an increasingly obsessive perfection, seeking to return to the parents of the fallen soldiers a serene image of their children, a memory they can behold.

He learns to suture, to apply makeup, to conceal their wounds, so that once photographed, they appear as if asleep. In this way, he transforms an apparently repulsive task into one imbued with humanity.

Meanwhile, Klammer collides with a world of military rigidity and intolerance unknown to him, confronting death and horror repeatedly. The muddy life, rats, and constant danger of the trenches are unbearable for a young, educated man who cannot comprehend the world he lives in and dreams of becoming a writer…