Destiny
About
Live accompaniment by Kamyar Arsani with Kajwan Ziaoddini and Maya Renfro. Watch the Trailer This “bizarre and captivating . . . eerie dream of longing and fear” (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian ) was hailed by film scholar Tom Gunning as “one of the most perfectly crafted films of the Weimar cinema.” Fritz Lang’s silent-era masterpiece uses the nesting stories structure of The Thousand and One Nights and includes a section inspired by its tales. In Destiny , Death comes to a small German town in the figure of a mysterious stranger who builds an enormous walled garden for keeping souls. After spiriting away a young woman’s fiancé, Death offers her a deal: if she can save her lover’s life in three alternate realities—ancient Persia, Renaissance Venice, and ancient China, he will return him to the living. Kamyar Arsani , a scholar of the daf (the Iranian frame drum) is an Iranian multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Through his solo work and numerous collaborations, Arsani creates music across an array of styles, ranging from classical Persian music to genre-defying punk and electronic experimentation. He last performed at the museum with Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life in 2024. Director: Fritz Lang. Country: Germany. Released: 1921. Length: 97 min. Format: Restored DCP. Silent with English intertitles. A film from the holdings of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung ( www.murnau-stiftung.de ) in Wiesbaden. Image courtesy of Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung
