“Cinema as exile and as an alien home of reality.” An essay in six chapters on the essence and history of documentary film. This is done by showing old footage, by reading excerpts from books on film and by the registration and editing of the director’s work. Parallel to a dense process of reflecting on and questioning of pictures there is a multilayered maze of references for documentary work: reality and truth, presentation and representation. authenticity and mise en scene. Reality is (internally) categorized when seen through a camera. Working out a film becomes in itself a film, a film more intelligent than its author but never showing more than what the viewer is able to detect. Truth or art is hidden somewhere between and it’s the viewer’s task/pleasure to look for it.