Sorry, this ent­ry is only available in Deutsch.

Vom 12.–18.09.2024 fin­det die­ses Jahr zum 19. Mal das größ­te pol­ni­sche Filmfestival außer­halb Polens statt (mehr, Katalog). Im fsk zei­gen wir alle sie­ben Wettbewerbsbeiträge und zwei Specials:

Wed., 3. Dec.:

• filmPOLSKA rel­oa­ded – Loss of Balance um 18:00

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A film by Aslı Özarslan. In German and Turkish with German and English subtitles.

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Hazal’s grea­test wish is to have a life. In spi­te of many appli­ca­ti­ons, she isn’t invi­ted to a sin­gle job inter­view. Instead, she is stuck in a Job Centre trai­ning pro­gram that fails to open up any new oppor­tu­ni­ties for her. But on her 18th bir­th­day, Hazal feels powerful. It is like the old days when she and her fri­ends belie­ved they could achie­ve any­thing as long as they stuck tog­e­ther. It’s only when they’re queu­e­ing to get into a hip club that Hazal feels they don’t belong the­re. And she’s right. The boun­cer refu­ses to let them in. On their way home, they’re ver­bal­ly abu­sed by an arro­gant stu­dent. The situa­ti­on escala­tes, Hazal’s frus­tra­ti­on about all the rejec­tions erupts into a fatal act. Hazal flees head­long to Istanbul, a stran­ge city in a coun­try unknown to her. There, she has to sur­vi­ve on her own, no mat­ter what the cost.
Ellbogen tells the sto­ry of a young woman who is pushed out of socie­ty and has to reset the cour­se of her life. We want to run through the night with her; we want to know what hap­pens next – for her, and for us all.

Credits:

DE/TK/FR 2024, 86 Min., Deutsch, Türkisch Originalfassung mit deut­schen und eng­li­schen Untertiteln
Regie: Aslı Özarslan
Kamera: Andac Karabeyoglu-Thomas
Schnitt: David J. Achilles, Ana Branea
mit: Melia Kara, Doğa Gürer, Jale Arıkan, Haydar Şahin, Orhan Kiliç, Jamilah Bagdach, Asya Utku, Mina Sağdıç 

Trailer:

nach oben

A film by Fabian Stumm. In German with English subtitles.

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Joseph and Sonya share an inti­ma­te fri­end­ship and their young son, whom they’re rai­sing tog­e­ther. While Joseph, a film direc­tor, is dou­bly preoc­cu­p­ied with a new idea for a film and with the after­math of a pre­vious rela­ti­onship, Sonya suf­fers from depres­si­on. When she is hos­pi­ta­li­zed, Joseph must jugg­le both his ever­y­day com­mit­ments and his artis­tic ambitions.

Credits:

DE 2024, 96 Min., in deutsch mit eng­li­schen Untertiteln
Regie: Fabian Stumm
Kamera: Michael Bennett
Schnitt: Kaspar Panizza
mit Fabian Stumm, Haley Louise Jones, Justus Meyer, Ulrica Flach, Jonas Dassler, Godehard Giese, Marie-Lou Sellem

Trailer:

nach oben

A film by Sogo Ishi. In Japanese with German subtitles.

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The Kobayashi fami­ly final­ly are able to move out of their tiny, cram­ped Tokyo apart­ment to the sub­ur­ban house of their dreams. But things are not as per­fect as they seem: the house is infes­ted by ter­mi­tes and the fami­ly starts going cra­zy: Son Masaki is stu­dy­ing so obses­si­ve­ly for his exams that he’s losing his mind; daugh­ter Erika is obli­vious of all but her forth­co­ming record com­pa­ny audi­tion, grand­fa­ther Yasukuni starts get­ting World War II flash­backs and father Katsuhiko is so worried about his family’s “sick­ness” that he thinks can only be cured by group sui­ci­de. As the Kobayashis’ house beg­ins to crum­ble, so does the sani­ty of its inha­bi­tants. Katsuhiko takes it upon hims­elf to keep them from the asylum…at any cost.

Credits:

Crazy Family
JP 1984, 106 Min., jap. OmU
Regie: Sogo Ishii
Kamera: Masaki Tamura
Schnitt: Junichi Kikuchi
mit: Katsuya Kobayashi, Mitsuko Baisho, Yoshiki Arizono, Youki Kudoh, Hitoshi Ueki u.a.

Trailer:

nach oben

A film by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh. In French with German subtitles.

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Gagarin erzählt die Geschichte von Youri (Alseni Bathily), der guten Seele einer Nachbarschaft, der an der Idee und an den Erinnerungen eines soli­da­ri­schen Zusammenlebens fest­hält, bis es nicht mehr geht.
Youri ist der selbst­er­nann­te Hausmeister einer 60er Jahre Siedlung in einer Vorstadt von Paris namens Gagarin. Obwohl er und sei­ne Freunde sich größ­te Mühe geben, kön­nen sie nicht ver­hin­dern, dass die Stadt beschließt, dass die Siedlung abge­ris­sen wer­den soll.
Nach und nach zie­hen alle weg, nur Youri hat für sich beschlos­sen zu blei­ben. Erst mal fin­det Youri neue Freunde. Das Roma Mädchen Diana (Lyna Khoudri, The French Dispatch) ist fas­zi­niert von sei­nem Einsiedlertum und der Dealer Dali (Finnegan Oldfield, Corsage) lebt auch noch irgend­wo im Gebäudekomplex. Dann aber wird die ille­ga­le Siedlung von Dianas Familie von der Stadt auf­ge­löst. Und auch Dali ver­schwin­det nach eine gewalt­tä­ti­gen Auseinandersetzung mit den Bauarbeitern, die Gagarin ver­sie­geln und für die Sprengung vor­be­rei­ten. Als letz­ter Bewohner lebt Youri in der Siedlung wie in einem Raumschiff. Youri weiß, dass er sich in eine Sackgasse manö­vriert hat, und dass sei­ne Umgebung immer lebens­feind­li­cher wird. Aber Youri ist stur, er will sei­ne Mission, wie einen Parabelflug been­den und so arbei­tet er an einem Countdown, an des­sen Ende die Hochhaussiedlung Gagarin für ihn um Hilfe rufen soll. Leider zählt wäh­rend­des­sen noch ein ande­rer Countdown von 10 bis 0.

Credits:

FR 2020, 95 Min., franz. OmU
Regie: Fanny Liatard, Jérémy Trouilh
Kamera: Victor Seguin
Schnitt: Daniel Darmon
mit Alseni Bathily, Lyna Khoudri, Jamil McCraven, Finnegan Oldfield, Farida Rahouadj, Denis Lavant

Trailer:

nach oben

A film by Thomas Arslan. On July 27th and 28th at the fsk. In German.

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Trojan is released from jail and goes straight back to his pro­fes­si­on as a cri­mi­nal. He gets hold of a wea­pon and looks out for new jobs. In just a few takes, Thomas Arslan sets up the anony­mous world of his gangs­ter prot­ago­nist by fal­ling back on motifs and cha­rac­ters from the gen­re. The back­room of a car work­shop, par­king lots, fur­nis­hed apart­ments. One meets men and women who dis­trust each other becau­se they are all out to line their own pockets. The set­ting chan­ges con­stant­ly, with sur­veil­lan­ce and cha­se sce­nes pro­vi­ding a dyna­mic nar­ra­ti­ve rhythm. Since crime makes up Trojan’s dai­ly exis­tence, the film con­cen­tra­tes enti­re­ly on the tech­ni­cal natu­re of a life out­side the law. The redu­ced and clear-cut images – shot with a Red came­ra – high­light the exact sequence of events. Im Schatten is a gen­re film that focu­ses con­sis­t­ent­ly on the mecha­nics and exter­nal pro­cess of a crime. It deve­lo­ps a sen­se of gre­at sus­pen­se, wit­hout bur­de­ning its figu­res with per­so­nal sto­ries. Each hand move­ment has to be right. All of a sud­den, the ques­ti­on of whe­ther Trojan will mana­ge to start the geta­way car on time beco­mes a gre­at movie moment.

Credits:

DE 2010, 85 Min., DF
Regie: Thomas Arslan
Kamera: Reinhold Vorschneider
Schnitt: Bettina Blickwede
mit Mišel Matičević, Karoline Eichhorn, Uwe Bohm, Rainer Bock, David Scheller, Peter Kurth

Trailer:

nach oben

A film by Pawo Choyning Dorji. In Dzongkha and English with German subtitles.

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Kingdom of Bhutan, 2006. Modernization has final­ly arri­ved. Bhutan beco­mes the last coun­try in the world to con­nect to the inter­net and tele­vi­si­on, and now the big­gest chan­ge of all: demo­cra­cy. To teach the peo­p­le how to vote, the aut­ho­ri­ties orga­ni­ze a mock elec­tion, but the locals seem uncon­vin­ced. Traveling to rural Bhutan whe­re reli­gi­on is more popu­lar than poli­tics, the elec­tion super­vi­sor dis­co­vers that a monk is plan­ning a mys­te­rious cerem­o­ny for the elec­tion day.

Credits:

The Monk and the Gun
BT 2023, 107 Min., Dzongkha, Englisch OmU
Regie: Pawo Choyning Dorji
Kamera: Jigme Tenzing
Schnitt: Hsiao-Yun Ku
mit: Tandin Wangchuk, Deki Lhamo, Pema Zangmo Sherpa, Tandin Sonam, Harry Einhorn, Choeying Jatsho, Tandin Phubz, Yuphel Lhendup Selden, Kelsang Choejay

Trailer:

nach oben

A film by Stephanie Allynne & Tig Notaro. In English.

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Lucy is a 32-year-old woman living in Los Angeles with her best fri­end Jane and working as a recep­tio­nist at a spa. She finds litt­le satis­fac­tion in her roman­tic life, inclu­ding with her fri­end Ben, who beco­mes frus­tra­ted at her con­tin­ued avo­id­ance of his advan­ces. Jane recei­ves a work pro­mo­ti­on that will requi­re her to relo­ca­te to London, and goes out for drinks with Lucy and Jane’s boy­fri­end Danny to cele­bra­te. After Jane con­fes­ses to kis­sing a fema­le fri­end as a teen­ager, Lucy drun­ken­ly tells her that she thinks she might be a les­bi­an. Jane encou­ra­ges her to explo­re her fee­lings, sug­gest­ing that Lucy should pur­sue her flir­ta­tious mas­sa­ge the­ra­pist co-worker Brittany.

Lucy invi­tes Brittany to her house for din­ner, but recei­ves mixed signals as Brittany shares about her ex-boy­fri­end, but also decla­res her sexua­li­ty to be „on the spec­trum” and kis­ses her befo­re lea­ving. Jane brings Lucy to a les­bi­an bar, but Lucy is shy and soon lea­ves after see­ing Jane kis­sing other women on the dance flo­or; the two fight and stop spea­king. Lucy meets up with Brittany again. The two have sex, but Brittany quick­ly lea­ves the fol­lo­wing mor­ning and beco­mes distant, later recon­ci­ling with her ex-boy­fri­end. Meanwhile, Jane deals with the pres­su­res of her upco­ming move, inclu­ding her self-absor­bed co-worker Kat and Danny’s con­fes­si­on that he does not want to join Jane in London as she assu­med he would.

Lucy quits her job to return to her pas­si­on of pain­ting, and beg­ins mee­ting other women on dating apps. She comes out to Ben, and the two recon­ci­le as fri­ends. After going on a „ham­mock retre­at” with Kat, Jane makes up with Lucy, exci­ted­ly offe­ring sup­port for the chan­ges in her life. Lucy offers to dri­ve Jane to the air­port as she heads to London, only to reve­al that she will be joi­ning her on the trip to help ease her transition.

Credits:

US 2022, 86 Min., engl., OV
Regie & Schnitt: Stephanie Allynne & Tig Notaro
Kamera: Cristina Dunlap
Schnitt: Kayla Emter · Glen Scantlebury
mit: Dakota Johnson, Sonoya Mizuno, Jermaine Fowler, Kiersey Clemons, Molly Gordon

Trailer:

nach oben

A film by Thomas Arslan. In German with English subtitles.

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Following In the Shadows, the film Scorched Earth is the second part of Thomas Arslan’s Trojan tri­lo­gy. Twelve years after care­er cri­mi­nal Trojan was forced to flee Berlin, the search for con­tracts leads him back to the city. Trojan is bro­ke and urgen­tly needs a new job. But Berlin has chan­ged and his old cont­acts are no lon­ger of much use. Plus, Trojan’s maxim of only ever working for cash is hard to fol­low in an incre­asing­ly digi­ta­li­sed world. So it takes some time befo­re the midd­le­wo­man Rebecca final­ly offers him the pro­s­pect of a lucra­ti­ve con­tract: a pain­ting by Caspar David Friedrich is to be sto­len from a muse­um. The heist unites Trojan with geta­way dri­ver Diana, his for­mer mate Luca and the young Chris. Everything looks pro­mi­sing, but the shadowy cli­ent and his hench­man Victor have their own plans for the pain­ting. Soon it beco­mes less about the money and more about get­ting out alive.

Credits:

DE 2024, 101 Min., dt. OmeU
Regie: Thomas Arslan
Kamera: Reinhold Vorschneider
Schnitt: Reinaldo Pinto Almeida
mit Mišel Matičević, Marie Leuenberger, Alexander Fehling, Tim Seyfi, Bilge Bingül, Marie-Lou Sellem, Katrin Röver, Anja Schneider, Tamer Yiğit

Trailer:

nach oben

A Film by Jonathan Schörnig. On July 20th an 21st at the fsk. In German and English with German subtitles.

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How a sea res­cue can take place is bey­ond ima­gi­na­ti­on. The real-time docu­men­ta­ry “One Hundred Four” (German ori­gi­nal title: “Einhundertvier“) brings this dra­ma­tic situa­ti­on clo­ser. The film shows how ago­ni­s­in­gly long it takes to res­cue 104 peo­p­le from a sin­king rub­ber ding­hy. Person by per­son, step by step, the action is accom­pa­nied by seve­ral par­al­lel came­ras. The situa­ti­on comes to a head when the Libyan coast­guard appears. The res­cued peo­p­le and the crew wait for days on the high seas, as no Mediterranean coun­try allows them to dock. Only after a ter­ri­ble storm does the ship reach a European harbour.

Every year, the world’s most dan­ge­rous escape rou­te claims thou­sands of lives. In the first half of 2023 alo­ne, almost 2,000 peo­p­le died in the Mediterranean becau­se the European Union‘s bor­der poli­cy sys­te­ma­ti­cal­ly vio­la­tes exis­ting rights. Instead of hel­ping the ship­w­re­cked, Frontex car­ri­es out ille­gal push­backs, sup­ports the vio­lent actions of the Libyan coast­guard and mas­si­ve­ly com­bats pri­va­te sea res­cue mis­si­ons that inter­ve­ne whe­re the EU fails. Despite media evi­dence, it remains incom­pre­hen­si­ble to tho­se who have not expe­ri­en­ced this situa­ti­on them­sel­ves: why are hundreds of peo­p­le in mor­tal dan­ger being denied help and the civi­li­an hel­pers even threa­ten­ed and criminalised?

Jonathan Schörnig was affec­ted by the dilem­ma of lack of awa­re­ness and deci­ded to bring a sea res­cue to the screen as a real-time docu­men­ta­ry to show how ago­ni­s­in­gly long it takes to res­cue 104 peo­p­le from a sin­king rub­ber boat. The film accom­pa­nies the action per­son by per­son, step by step, with seve­ral par­al­lel cameras.

The situa­ti­on comes to a head when the Libyan coast­guard turns up. The res­cued peo­p­le and the crew wait for days on the high seas, as no Mediterranean coun­try allows them to dock. Only after a ter­ri­ble storm does a har­bour grant them ent­ry. What sounds like a bad film script is actual­ly the dai­ly reality.

Credits:

DE 2023, 93 Min., engl., dt. OmU
Regie & Schnitt: Jonathan Schörnig
Kamera: Jonathan Schörnig, Johannes Filous

Trailer:

nach oben