The Bookseller of Berne
Director Andrea Leila Kuheni
Countries Switzerland
Duration 25 min
Synopsis
Soon Jaime Ramagosa will be ninety years old. It’s time to close his antiquarian bookshop in Berne. Here he is among the emptied out book shelves. But he hasn‘t completely given up the trade with old books. In a backroom he keeps his best pieces. He takes care of them, he arranges them, the books, which often are hundreds of years older than him and which will survive him. He keeps reading them, especially his beloved Don Quixote. He keeps reading until he is so tired that he is no longer able to understand what he‘s reading. At that moment he closes the book and then falls asleep. He used to do so his whole life. And he always used to have difficulties in giving away items that have become unsalable. But he doesn’t sell his books to anybody. They should end up in good hands. That’s what he is working for until the very end.
Soon Jaime Ramagosa will be ninety years old. It’s time to close his antiquarian bookshop in Berne. Here he is among the emptied out book shelves. But he hasn‘t completely given up the trade with old books. In a backroom he keeps his best pieces. He takes care of them, he arranges them, the books, which often are hundreds of years older than him and which will survive him. He keeps reading them, especially his beloved Don Quixote. He keeps reading until he is so tired that he is no longer able to understand what he‘s reading. At that moment he closes the book and then falls asleep. He used to do so his whole life. And he always used to have difficulties in giving away items that have become unsalable. But he doesn’t sell his books to anybody. They should end up in good hands. That’s what he is working for until the very end.