Director Frank Scheffer was the recipient ot the 1997 Dutch Film Critics Award for his entire body of work, a back catalogue numbering over 25 films made during the past 17 years. Scheffer has a particular interest in the relationship between music and images and his docu­mentary Voyage to Cythera (not to be confused with the Theo Angelopoulos fiim of the same name) reflects this area of expertise.

The film concentrates on the third part of Luciano Berio's composition Sinfonia which consists of a number of musical quotes from composers like Mahler, Stravinsky, Boulez, Schoenberg and Stockhausen. Scheffer has made documentaries about all these com­posers and similarly 'quotes' from his own films.

Voyage to Cythera includes rehearsals, interviews (with Luciano Berio, Riccardo Chailly and Louis Andriessen) and performances by leading orchestras linked by images of a river, the same river Berio used as a connecting element in his composition: "A river run­ning through a constantly changing landscape, disap­pearing from time to time, only to emerge later, totally transformed."

A beguiling and intriguing method of presenting Berio's music that steps away from conventional arts documentary style. Captivating.