a film by Lutz Pehnert. In German with English subtitles

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A bio­gra­phy set in East and West Berlin about the life of a defi­ant woman who unites the poli­ti­cal and the pri­va­te in the poet­ry of her song lyrics. Bettina Wegner is often redu­ced to just one of her many songs, “Sind so klei­ne Hände” (“Children”) and her col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with Joan Baez. But here in Lutz Pehnert’s por­trait she is given the space she deser­ves. Taken to court at the age of 21 for pro­test­ing against the vio­lent end of the Prague Spring, she soon beca­me part of the lively music and lite­ra­tu­re sce­ne around Thomas Brasch and her hus­band Klaus Schlesinger, all the while pur­suing her cri­ti­cal stance as an indi­vi­du­al and as an artist. In her hus­ky voice, she descri­bes – even humo­rous­ly – her inner turm­oil and her deter­mi­na­ti­on not to give up her home in the GDR, even when she was no lon­ger wan­ted the­re. Written in 1980, her song “Über Gebote” (“About Rules”) ser­ves Pehnert as a nar­ra­ti­ve thread while he uses archi­ve mate­ri­al from East and West Germany, audio recor­dings from her tri­al as well as Wegner’s own words and music to gui­de us through her life. In this way, the film gives a new audi­ence the chan­ce to dis­co­ver sin­ger-song­wri­ter Bettina Wegner – who real­ly only ever wan­ted to sing love songs.

Credits:

DE 2022, 107 Min., deut­sche Fassung mit eng­li­schen Untertiteln
Regie, Buch: Lutz Pehnert
Kamera: Anne Misselwitz
Montage: Thomas Kleinwächter

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a film by Ulrike Franke und Michael Loeken. In English and German with German and English subtitles. 

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A look at two cities loca­ted far apart – Bochum and Detroit – whe­re the depar­tu­re of the auto­mo­bi­le indus­try has left behind enorm­ous chal­lenges. The indus­try dis­ap­pears, and what remains are the peo­p­le. Ultimately, it is a jour­ney into the hearts of each city’s inha­bi­tants, who are in search of a new iden­ti­ty fol­lo­wing the end of the indus­tri­al age. Despite all their dif­fe­ren­ces, what unites them is the desi­re for a digni­fied and hap­py life.

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DE 2021, 118 Min., deutsch, eng­li­sche OmU
Regie: Ulrike Franke, Michael Loeken
Kamera: Uwe Schäfer, Philip Hallay, Fabrizio Costantini, Michael Loeken, Michael Chauvistré, Jörg Adams
Schnitt: Guido Krajewski, Bert Schmidt

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a film by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. In English and Spanish with German subtitles.

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Apichatpong Weerasethakul cros­ses the glo­be and chan­ges lan­guages in his latest fea­ture – but Colombia turns out to be some­thing like a spi­ri­tu­al dou­ble for his home turf of Thailand, as we’re in very fami­li­ar Apichatpong ter­ri­to­ry here.
Speaking Spanish most of the time, Tilda Swinton is an ide­al fit for the director’s ima­gi­na­ti­ve uni­ver­se and is per­fect­ly attu­n­ed to his cha­rac­te­ristic pacing and tone. She plays Jessica, an orchid spe­cia­list working in Medellín who finds hers­elf haun­ted and baf­f­led by stran­ge ban­ging sounds – are they in the world out­side, or insi­de her head? Attempting to sol­ve the ridd­le, she con­sults a sound spe­cia­list, who pro­ves oddly elu­si­ve, then later heads off into the coun­try­si­de, whe­re she meets a man who – like the hero of Borges’s sto­ry Funes the Memorious – claims never to for­get any­thing.
With a sur­pri­sing modern jazz inter­lude and an altog­e­ther breath­ta­king pay­off, MEMORIA is a poe­tic inquiry into sound, time, and memo­ry, and ano­ther of Apichatpong’s essays on our inter­ac­tion with the stran­gen­ess of the natu­ral world; it’s also, inci­den­tal­ly, a remin­der that Colombia is tra­di­tio­nal­ly the home of Latin American magi­cal rea­lism. Jeanne Balibar and ZAMA’s Daniel Gimenez Cacho co-star. (Jonathan Romney)

Credits:

CO, TH, GB, MX, FR, CN, TW 2021, 136 Min., spa­nisch, eng­li­sche OmU
Regie : Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Kamera: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom
Schnitt: Lee Chatametikool
mit: Tilda Swinton, Elkin Díaz, Jeanne Balibar, Juan Pablo Urrego, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Agnes Brekke

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A film by Antje Hubert. In German

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What and how much do we need for a good life? Not much, says Knut Thomsen from Dithmarschen Something to eat, some­thing to drink, and the free­dom to take time for wha­te­ver you’­re doing at that moment. His wife Berit and him have ope­ned a vil­la­ge store tog­e­ther – a 40-squa­re-meter, fun-loving uni­ver­se of regio­nal vege­ta­bles, careful­ly arran­ged shel­ves, chit­chat and cohe­si­on. And an island in a sea of dis­coun­ters that have long sin­ce dis­pla­ced the small stores in the coun­try­si­de. For two years, Antje Hubert and her team tra­vel through nor­t­hern German vil­la­ges and tell sto­ries of peo­p­le who dare to try some­thing new in a vacu­um of tra­di­ti­ons that have almost been lost.

Credits:

DE 2021, 98 Min.
Regie : Antje Hubert
Kamera: Henning Brümmer
Montage: Magdolna Rokob

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a film by Catherine Corsini. In French with German subtitles. 

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Raf (Valéria Bruni Tedeschi) and Julie (Marina Foïs), a cou­ple on the ver­ge of brea­king up, find them­sel­ves in an Emergency Department clo­se to asphyxia­ti­on on the evening of a major ‚yel­low ves­ts‘ pro­test in Paris. Their encoun­ter with Yann (Pio Marmaï), an inju­red and angry demons­tra­tor, will shat­ter their cer­tain­ties and pre­ju­di­ces. Outside, the ten­si­on escala­tes and soon, the hos­pi­tal has to clo­se its doors and the staff is over­whel­med. The night will be long…

Credits:

La frac­tu­re
FR 2021, 98 Min., frz. OmU
Regie : Catherine Corsini
Kamera: Jeanne Lapoirie
Schnitt: Frédéric Baillehaiche
mit : Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Marina Foïs, Pio Marmaï, Aissatou Diallo Sagna

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a film by Serpil Turhan. In German and Kurdish with German subtitles.

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KÖY (Turkish for vil­la­ge) is about the lon­ging for home, for belon­ging and the free­dom of the self. Three women from three gene­ra­ti­ons are united by their Kurdish roots. All of them ori­gi­na­te from vil­la­ges in eas­tern Turkey and live in Berlin. Against the back­ground of the poli­ti­cal chan­ges in Turkey, Serpil Turhan held inten­se dis­cus­sions over a peri­od of three years. KÖY cap­tures each woman’s emo­tio­nal world and shows frag­ments of the ordi­na­ry. Hêvîn, Saniye and Neno do not meet, but their sto­ries are lin­ked when it comes to self-deter­mi­na­ti­on and belonging.

Credits:

DE 2021, 90 Min.,
Regie: Serpil Turhan,
Kamera: Ute Freund
Schnitt: Simon Quack & Eva Hartmann 

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a film by Audrey Diwan. Starts March 31st at the fsk. In French with German subtitles. 

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Access to abor­ti­on, now con­side­red an ina­li­enable human right in the Western world, was only made pos­si­ble by the cou­ra­ge­ous strug­gles car­ri­ed out by women from the late 1960s onward. L’EVÉNEMENT takes place at the dawn of this cru­cial coll­ec­ti­ve awa­re­ness, at a time when abor­ti­on was still con­side­red a cri­mi­nal offen­se in France. Audrey Diwan brings Annie Ernaux’s auto­bio­gra­phi­cal novel (2000) to life on the screen with a sober, sen­si­ti­ve touch.
Student Annie, the film’s heroi­ne, is the pro­to­ty­pe of a young woman deter­mi­ned to take her desti­ny into her own hands, to do what she wants with her body and con­se­quent­ly her life.
Shifting with a dre­a­my flui­di­ty bet­ween ensem­ble sce­nes – Annie lives in a stu­dent house and shares her ever­y­day life with a lar­ge group of girls – and the soli­ta­ry wan­de­rings of her prot­ago­nist, the direc­tor subt­ly expres­ses the trou­bles and vital decis­i­ons that this incre­asing­ly lonely girl must con­t­end with. In this con­stant­ly ten­se but never melo­dra­ma­tic chro­nic­le, actress Anamaria Vartolomei – the film’s gre­at reve­la­ti­on – embo­dies Annie’s fate with pas­sio­na­te deter­mi­na­ti­on. In the inten­si­ty of her gaze, we can sen­se the enti­re future of fema­le eman­ci­pa­ti­on. (Maria Giovanna Vagenas)

Credits:

L‘ Evénement
FR 2021, 100 min., frz. OmU
Regie: Audrey Diwan
Kamera: Laurent Tangy
Schnitt: Géraldine Mangenot
mit: Anamaria Vartolomei, Kacey Mottet-Klein, Luàna Bajrami, Louise Orry Diquero, Louise Chevillotte, Pio Marmaï, Sandrine Bonnaire, Anna Mouglalis, Leonor Oberson, Fabrizio Rongione

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A film by Philip Scheffner. In French an Arabic with German subtitles.

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Previously acclai­med for his essay­i­stic docu­men­ta­ries, Philip Scheffner has now ven­tu­red into fic­tion. Zohra, play­ed by Rhim Ibrir, alre­a­dy fea­tured in Scheffner’s HAVARIE (Berlinale Forum 2016), is living in a town in sou­thwes­tern France. She has a seve­re case of sco­lio­sis. Volker Sattel’s came­ra­work exami­nes X‑rays, fol­lows Zohra to the hos­pi­tal and to an indoor swim­ming pool for rehab and sits right next to her or behind her on the bus. The images are crisp and floo­ded with sum­mer light, the sen­se of place and space is so pre­cise that we know each of the bus stops along her way: first Poste, then Piscine, then Europe.
When Zohra’s con­di­ti­on impro­ves, her resi­dence per­mit is not rene­wed, so she has to go back to Algeria. Her case worker shrugs his should­ers: it’s out of his hands, he says, not­hing he can do about it. A fade to black marks a tur­ning point in the sto­ry, after which the heroi­ne dis­ap­pears from view. Scheffner con­ti­nues to vary this game of the visi­ble and the invi­si­ble for a while until dream and ever­y­day rea­li­ty fuse in the sum­mer heat and gla­ring sun­light to crea­te a shim­me­ring nar­ra­ti­ve in the sub­junc­ti­ve. (Cristina Nord)

Credits:

DE/FR 2022, 105 Min., Französisch, Arabisch OmU,
Regie: Philip Scheffner
Kamera: Volker Sattel.
Schnitt: Philip Scheffner
Mit: Rhim Ibrir, Thierry Cantin, Didier Cuillierier, Sadya Bekkouche

Trailer:

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Sorry, this ent­ry is only available in Deutsch.

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Als ihr Zuhälter und Vater ihres Kindes eine ande­re Frau hei­ra­tet, ver­sucht Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani) die Vergangenheit hin­ter sich zu las­sen und ein neu­es Leben anzu­fan­gen: Sie zieht mit ihrem 16-jäh­ri­gen Sohn, der auf dem Land in einem Internat auf­ge­wach­sen ist, in eine bür­ger­li­che Gegend und betreibt einen Gemüsestand. Das neue gemein­sa­me Leben ent­puppt sich als span­nungs­ge­la­de­ner als geplant, und plötz­lich erscheint auch der Zuhälter Carmine wie­der, inzwi­schen von sei­ner neu­en Frau getrennt, und stellt sie vor ein Ultimatum.

Regie: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Kamera: Tonino Delli Colli
Musik: Carlo Rustichelli
Mit: Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo, Franco Citti, Silvana Corsini, Luisa Loiano, Paolo Volponi etc.

IT, 1962, 105 min., OmU, FSK: 12

a Film by Pedro Almodóvar. In Spanish with German subtitles.

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Two women coin­ci­de in a hos­pi­tal room whe­re they are going to give birth. Both are sin­gle and beca­me pregnant by acci­dent. Janis, midd­le-aged, doesn’t reg­ret it and is exul­tant. The other, Ana, an ado­le­s­cent, is scared, rep­en­tant and trau­ma­tis­ed. Janis tri­es to encou­ra­ge her while they move like sleep­wal­kers along the hos­pi­tal cor­ri­dors. The few words they exch­an­ge in tho­se hours will crea­te a very clo­se link bet­ween the two, which by chan­ce deve­lo­ps and beco­mes com­pli­ca­ted, chan­ging their lives in a decisi­ve way.

Credits:

Madres parale­las
Spanien 2021, 126 min., span. OmU
Regie und Buch: Pedro Almodóvar
Kamera: José Luis Alcaine
Schnitt: Teresa Font
mit: Penélope Cruz, Milena Smit, Rossy de Palma, Israel Elejalde, Aitana Sánchez Gijón, Julietta Serrano, Daniela Santiago

Trailer:

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