Siri Hustvedt – Dance Around the Self

The documentary Siri Hustvedt – Dance Around the Self celebrates its world premiere in the Panorama section of the 76th Berlin International Film Festival. Director Sabine Lidl portrays Siri Hustvedt’s unique way of living and thinking, weaving her writing together with life’s great themes: love and farewell — especially in connection with her deep personal and artistic bond with her husband, the writer Paul Auster.

Young, curious, and full of drive, Siri Hustvedt leaves her home state of Minnesota and plunges into the vibrant energy of New York City. In search of the protagonist for her first novel, she embarks on a journey that not only makes her a writer but one of the most important voices in contemporary American literature. The film looks far beyond Siri Hustvedt herself and celebrates the resilient creativity of women artists with whom she feels a strong affinity. At the same time, Siri Hustvedt – Dance Around the Self tells the unique love story of Brooklyn’s legendary literary couple: Siri Hustvedt and Paul Auster.

Yet while the two reflect on language, identity, and the power of words, life intervenes: Paul Auster falls seriously ill. Even after his death, their shared story does not end. Siri Hustvedt begins to process the loss of her “life partner” in her book Ghost Stories: A Book of Memories.

For three years, Sabine Lidl follows the thoughts and stories that have made Siri Hustvedt one of the most important intellectual and feminist voices in American literature. Together, they are constantly in motion — through time and space, imaginatively moving between disciplines whose boundaries Hustvedt refuses to accept. The film also captures one of their most vulnerable moments, when Hustvedt and Auster are confronted with his cancer diagnosis.

The intimate portrait Siri Hustvedt – Dance Around the Self thus becomes a companion piece to the 2019 film about her husband and “life partner,” also directed by Sabine Lidl: Paul Auster – What If.