The essay film Absent Present centers on the filmmaker’s search for a missing friend. Benji was brought to the DDR from Namibia as a child in 1979 and sent back there in 1990 after German unification, where Levi met him during filming in 1991. Two years later, Benji returned to Europe and together with Levi, visited his former child home. Itself permanently in a state of travel, Levi’s film tests an aesthetic language sensitized to the visual orders of power. Absent Present is an associative and careful engagement with the border regimes of Europe.

Angelika Levi is a filmmaker, dramaturgist, editor and lecturer. Since 1985, Levi's films have been shown at international film festivals, in exhibitions and in cinemas and have won several awards. On 5th September her film My Life part 2 (2003) will be screened at the Festival Archival Assembly in Berlin.