Dzhovani Gospodinov
ORA ET LABORA
Ora et Labora portrays Germany‘s oldest Benedictine monastery at a critical moment of transition, exposing the fragile balance between faith, authority, and existence.
SYNOPSIS
Ora et Labora is a cinematic meditation on monastic life in the twenty-firstst century, set at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Mauritius in Tholey, Saarland, the oldest monastery on German soil. The film enters the abbey in 2023 under the leadership of Abbot Mauritius, a former Michelin-starred chef whose ambitious and unconventional vision transformed the monastery and gave the community a renewed sense of purpose. As the abbey seeks to revitalise itself and attract a new generation of monks, this fragile process is disrupted by the sudden death of its talismanic abbot. Through multiple characters Ora et Labora explores contrasting relationships to faith, authority, doubt, and vocation and asks what spirituality and belonging can mean in the context of religion and contemporary society.
DIRECTOR
Dzhovani Gospodinov
PRODUCER
Bady Minck, Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Amour Fou Luxembourg
COUNTRY
Luxembourg
Dzhovani Gospodinov
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Dzhovani Gospodinov is a Luxembourgish-Bulgarian filmmaker whose. work experiments with the boundaries between documentary and fiction. He is interested in the power of observational filmmaking and its ability to conjure both exteriorised and reflexive modes of storytelling. His films are defined by a materialist ethic that takes real-life encounters as a point of departure for further ontological inquiry. Gospodinov’s projects have illustrated the poetics of ancient pagan rituals and the erosion of intimacies between humankind and the natural world, among other themes
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
While making this film, I have been reflecting not only on the question of faith itself, but also on that of commitment: How much can an institution ask of the individual? When does devotion become endurance? Rather than trying to find answers my own commitment was to stay close without becoming complicit, to observe without idealizing, and to resist the temptation to simplify a world that is built on contradictions. The film shows the monastery as a collective body, allowing multiple figures to move in and out of focus over several years. Through conversations, shared routines, setbacks and realisations, we see the monastery as a world in constant negotiation with itself. With unprecedented access, I want to invite the viewer into a closed world. Rather than focusing on religion, ORA ET LABORA becomes an institutional portrait using the monastery as a microcosm to reflect broader questions of masculinity, identity, belonging, and meaning in a rapidly secularizing Europe.
Bady Minck
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY
Bady Minck, born in Luxembourg, works as an artist, filmmaker, and producer in Luxembourg and Vienna. In 1995, together with Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu, she founded the production company AMOUR FOU Luxembourg, and in 2001 AMOUR FOU Vienna. Since 2023, the AMOUR FOU group has also been operating in Germany with AMOUR FOU Germany. With AMOUR FOU, Bady Minck has produced more than a hundred feature films, short films, and documentaries, including films by directors such as Massoud Bakhshi, Alain Guiraudie, Jessica Hausner, Ulrike Ottinger, and Margarethe von Trotta.
PRODUCER’S STATEMENT
In his film Ora et Labora, Dzhovani Gospodinov allows us to gain an unprecedented insight into the everyday lives, challenges, and beliefs of Benedictine monks in the present day. Besides the fact that Ora et Labora is the first feature documentary to be shot in a European monastery since Philipp Gröning’s Into Great Silence in 2005, we were fascinated by the extraordinary context of this monastery. Not only is it the oldest monastery on German soil, but it is also run by a French ex-Michelin-starred chef with an unusual approach to his position. He successfully ran the guesthouse and acquired new church windows designed by Gerhard Richter, turning the monastery in Tholey into a tourist attraction. Over the past three years, a series of unforeseen events, new arrivals, and departures have allowed Dzhovani a deep insight into the monastery’s structures and the monks’ minds. He witnessed profound spiritual conversations, as well as the monks’ doubts and hopes, making Ora et Labora a universal and contemporary reflection on identity, spirituality, and belonging.
Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY
Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu studied philosophy and film theory and worked as an independent film critic, a distributor for Polyfilm Verleih, as well as a film programmer and curator. In 1995, together with Bady Minck, he founded the production company AMOUR FOU Luxembourg, and in 2001 AMOUR FOU Vienna. Since 2023, the AMOUR FOU group has also been operating in Germany with AMOUR FOU Germany. Dumreicher-Ivanceanu has produced over 100 films, many of which have been invited to prestigious festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance, IDFA, and Karlovy Vary, winning numerous international awards.
Production company profile
Founded in Luxembourg in 1995, in Vienna in 2001 and Germany in 2023, AMOUR FOU realises artistically exceptional fiction, documentary, and short films. Throughout the process, AMOUR FOU stands for vision and pushing the envelope, whether in regard to aesthetics, production, or distribution strategies. Its focus is on European independent auteur cinema and the distinctive “handwriting” of the directors who work with AMOUR FOU.
Where are we at?
TOTAL ESTIMATED BUDGET
563,267,88 €
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