Author: fsk

A film by Arjun Talwar. In Polish with German and English subtitles.

[Credits] [Tickets & Termine] [Trailer]

A street in cen­tral Warsaw is the focus of this wit­ty and per­so­nal por­trait of Poland. Filmmaker Arjun Talwar immi­gra­ted to the coun­try a deca­de ago but still strug­gles to fit in. Ulica Wilcza, the street whe­re he lives, has not real­ly hel­ped mat­ters. In an attempt to acce­le­ra­te his inte­gra­ti­on, he beg­ins film­ing his neigh­bours, sound­ing out his rela­ti­onships with them and see­king ways to over­co­me his own fee­lings of ali­en­ati­on. With the help of his fri­end Mo, ano­ther immi­grant-tur­ned-film­ma­ker, Arjun unco­vers the hid­den secrets of the street, reve­al­ing a host of char­ming inha­bi­tants. He finds other peo­p­le like hims­elf who are living bet­ween the past and pre­sent, bet­ween an ima­gi­ned home­land and the real one. The street con­nects them all like an invi­si­ble thread, offe­ring solace in the melan­cho­ly of ever­y­day life. Along this kilo­met­re-long stretch, a pic­tu­re of modern Europe emer­ges, expo­sing a kalei­do­scope of con­tra­dic­tions and anxie­ties as a for­eign film­ma­ker holds up a mir­ror to a coun­try that is often per­cei­ved as homo­ge­neous, unwel­co­ming and poli­ti­cal­ly right-wing.

Credits:

PL/DE 2025, 97 Min., pol­ni­sche Originalfassung mit deut­schen und eng­li­schen Untertiteln
Regie & Kamera: Arjun Talwar
Schnitt: Bigna Tomschin, Arjun Talwar & Sabina Filipowicz

Trailer:

nach oben

A film by Marjane Satrapi. Starts June 20th at the fsk. In French with German subtitles.

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PERSEPOLIS was one of the most suc­cessful films shown in our cine­ma. Last week, the aut­hor and direc­tor, Marjane Satrapi, pas­sed away at the age of just 56. For this reason, we are brin­ging the film back into our pro­gram­me after 19 years.

The film adapt­a­ti­on of the comic book of the same name.
“The film tells the sto­ry, in simp­le, almost enti­re­ly black-and-white images, of the litt­le girl Marjane, who grows up in Tehran, goes to school in Austria, returns to Iran for a while, and then goes into exi­le in Paris for good. The sto­ry beg­ins with the ous­ting of the Shah, con­ti­nues through the betray­ed hopes of the revo­lu­ti­on to the war bet­ween Iran and Iraq, and ends with the tyran­ni­cal rule of the mul­lahs – all seen through the eyes of the ado­le­s­cent.
It is the author’s per­spec­ti­ve, as she tells her own sto­ry in her immense­ly suc­cessful comics: cle­ver, wit­ty, self-depre­ca­ting, and at times deep­ly sad. Instead of using digi­tal ani­ma­ti­on tech­ni­ques, the film was drawn enti­re­ly by hand. That is why it actual­ly looks like Marjane Satrapi’s books in moti­on.” Verena Lueken

“In the 1980s, when Iran was fight­ing Iraq, many upper-midd­le-class par­ents sent their child­ren from Tehran to the West for their edu­ca­ti­on, inclu­ding my fami­ly. In Austria, my first stop, I often had to explain that my father didn’t have three wives and why I didn’t ride a camel at home. They were sur­pri­sed that I’d alre­a­dy been ski­ing and had drunk alco­hol. Just ima­gi­ne: you come from Tehran, which was alre­a­dy very modern at the time, to a small Austrian vil­la­ge – and here they explain moder­ni­ty to you. They didn’t even have a cine­ma in the vil­la­ge!”
Marjane Satrapi

Credits:

Fr 2007, 96 Min., frz. OmU
Regie: Marjane Satrapi / Vincent
Paronnaud
Nach den gleich­na­mi­gen Comics von Marjane Satrapi
Originalstimmen: Gabrielle Lopes, Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Simon Abkarian, François Jerosme

„Preis der Jury“ – Cannes 2007

Trailer:

nach oben

A film by Jacqueline Jansen. In German with English subtiles.

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The film opens with death, por­tray­ed with com­ple­te calm and wit­hout sen­ti­men­ta­li­ty. Then the grie­ving pro­cess beg­ins, depic­ted with sen­si­ti­vi­ty, not wit­hout moments of appa­rent call­ous­ness, which are not, howe­ver, taken amiss, but rather – like ever­y­thing else, in fact – told with infi­ni­te ten­der­ness. The over­whel­ming sen­se of being over­whel­med, the loneli­ne­ss, the unre­asonable demands: “This exis­ten­ti­al fee­ling of being aban­do­ned by the world and lost in it, of being cut off” (Joachim Kurz) This uni­que film also deals with this – on its meta-level, so to speak.
Lore accom­pa­nies her mother as she dies. She returns to the small town of her child­hood, Erkelenz, whe­re many acquain­tances and rela­ti­ves still live who speak the Rhineland dialect. Dealing with death and the grie­ving pro­cess are the film’s cen­tral the­mes. Yet it is the way the sto­ry is told that makes this film tru­ly out­stan­ding. Naturally, melan­cho­ly sets the tone, but any poten­ti­al for sen­ti­men­ta­li­ty is com­ple­te­ly under­mi­ned by the neo­rea­list nar­ra­ti­ve style, to which the endea­ring per­for­man­ces of the many ama­teur actors also con­tri­bu­te.
Alongside this, and in a com­ple­te­ly unob­tru­si­ve man­ner, the sto­ry is set during the pan­de­mic. Embedded within the nar­ra­ti­ve, it forms a kind of back­ground noi­se, fur­ther rein­for­cing the sen­se of loneli­ne­ss and aban­don­ment and thus reflec­ting the gene­ral sta­te of socie­ty.
P.S. According to the Catholic Church, a ‘six-week mass’ is a ser­vice cele­bra­ted six weeks after a death, mar­king the end of the first pha­se of mour­ning for the bereaved.

Credits:

DE 2025, 98 Min., In German with English sub­ti­les
Regie:  Jacqueline Jansen
Kamera:Markus Ott
Schnitt: Simon Dopslaf, Jacqueline Jansen
mit Magdalena Laubisch, Gerta Gormanns, Lola Klamroth, Olga Prokot, Suzanne Ziellenbach, Marc Fischer,

Trailer:

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A film by Rosanne Pel. Original ver­si­on in German, English, and Dutch, some with German subtitles

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Anna and Charlotte are con­stant­ly com­pe­ting with each other. At least, that’s how their mother, Ines, wants it—she favors one over the other and makes sure the other one knows it. Nevertheless, the dis­si­mi­lar sisters—one que­er and non­con­for­mist, the other a sup­po­sedly tough, suc­cessful woman—return to their child­hood home in nor­t­hern Germany. Old wounds are reope­ned and well-kept secrets come to light: Whose ashes is their mother hiding? What con­nects her to a Hungarian don­key farm? In their search for ans­wers, the dis­si­mi­lar sis­ters find new trust in one another.

A black come­dy of the pet­ty nas­ti­nes­ses found only within fami­lies. In her second fea­ture film, direc­tor Rosanne Pel explo­res with subt­le humor the often pro­ble­ma­tic rela­ti­onships bet­ween mothers, sis­ters, and daughters—and the socie­tal role models that under­lie them. “Donkey Days” is a modern, begui­lingly absurd fami­ly film brim­ming with empa­thy for its characters.

Credits:

NL/DE 2025, 108 Min., Original ver­si­on in German, English, and Dutch, some with German sub­tit­les
Regie:  Rosanne Pel
Kamera: Aafke Beernink
Schnitt: Xander Nijsten
mit Jil Krammer, Susanne Wolff, Hildegard Schmahl, Amke Wegner, Carla Juri

Trailer:

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