Cineconcert: Häxan - The Witch, live music by Broken Bird

Cineconcert:

Häxan The Witch (1922 by Benjamin Christensen)

with live music by Broken Bird (Tagelharpas Guitars Voice and Electronics)

(silent movie with Danish inter-titles and English subtitles not suitable for children)

Date: Friday 21 March 2025

Doors open at 7.30 pm Cineconcert: 8 to 10 pm

Location: O Gabinete de Madame Thao

Rua Ferreira Borges 191 (Atelier 2 Patio)

1350-275 Lisbon (Campo de Ourique)

Price: 12 euros (pre-sales: +351 910 709 042 [email protected]) 14 euros at the door

Live Music:

Broken Bird will play a blend of Nordic and industrial sounds placed in the same canon as Heilung Wardruna & A Tergo Lupi. Combined with a modern blues feel this music connects people across cultures and time.

Broken Bird is a composer and multi-instrumentalist with five albums released. Primarily a guitarist and singer he has always believed that music can bring a greater sense of awareness. The instruments involved in his recent “Animent” project tagelharpas and tires are made individually by friends. This gives each one a unique personal sound that adds to the richness of the music.

Movie:

Häxan The Witch is a 1922 Swedish-Danish silent horror essay film written and directed by Benjamin Christensen. A hybrid of documentary and fiction this film explores the history of witchcraft demonology and satanism.

Based partly on Christensen's own study of the Malleus Maleficarum a 15th-century German guide for inquisitors Häxan proposes that such witch-hunts may have stemmed from misunderstandings of mental or neurological disorders triggering mass hysteria.

With Christensen's meticulous recreation of medieval scenes and the long production period the film was the most expensive Scandinavian silent film ever made costing almost two million Swedish kronor. Although it won acclaim in Denmark and Sweden the film was banned in the United States and heavily censored in other countries for what was considered at the time to be graphic portrayals of torture nudity and sexual perversion as well as anti-clericalism.It is now considered to be Christensen's best work.

Host or Publisher O Gabinete de Madame Thao