Reading & Talk

Wim Wenders “Wesentliches”

A man with grey hair and blue glasses looks into the camera with a smile from the right edge of the picture.

Wim Wenders, 2023 © Donata Wenders / Courtesy of Wenders Images

For Wim Wenders, who wrote his first film review before he wrote his first film, writing remains an important part of creative work to this day: “Only when I am writing can I think things through to the end,” he says. On 7 November 2025 the director, photographer and author will read from his new book “Wesentliches” (“Essentials”) at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.

Reading & Talk between Wim Wenders and editor Annette Reschke. Afterwards Wim Wenders will be available to sign the book.


W.I.M. The Art of Seeing
1 August 2025 to 11 January 2026
Exhibition at the Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn
bundeskunsthalle.de/en/wim

Even at the age of 80, the creator of film classics such as “Paris, Texas” and “Wings of Desire”, of Oscar-nominated documentaries such as “Buena Vista Social Club”, “Pina” and “The Salt of the Earth” and, most recently, the acclaimed feature “Perfect Days” remains a searcher. Indeed, searching is characteristic of Wim Wenders’ work overall. However, his creative work has several essential features – and this is what his new book is about. “Wesentliches” brings together four autobiographical texts: about music as an elixir of survival and how it plays an active role in his films, about framing as a key element of his working philosophy, about the affectionate gaze as a precept for getting to the heart of the nature of his characters and, finally, about knowing that he is a “practising romantic.

With

Wim Wenders – Director
Annette Reschke – Publisher

Produced by the Berliner Festspiele in co-operation with the Verlag der Autoren and the international literature festival berlin
Bookshop Partner: Dussmann das KulturKaufhaus