Author Archives: fsk

Agent of Happiness

A film by Arun Bhattarai & Dorottya Zurbó. In Dzongkha with German subtitles.

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The film fol­lows Amber Kumar Gurung and Guna Raj Kuikel, two Bhutanese bureau­crats, in their tra­vels through the small Himalayan king­dom as cen­sus workers, mea­su­ring peo­p­le’s hap­pi­ness levels. They work for the Center for Gross National Happiness, a govern­ment insti­tu­ti­on which is tas­ked with coll­ec­ting data on the citi­zens‘ hap­pi­ness. This data is then used to inform the con­sti­tu­tio­nal­ly-man­da­ted goal of incre­asing natio­nal happiness.[5]

Along the way we meet Bhutan’s ever­y­day peo­p­le, such as a trans­gen­der bar sin­ger, a wealt­hy far­mer and his three wives, a teenage girl who worries about her mother’s alco­ho­lism, or a recent widower who finds solace in reli­gi­on. Through them we get a glim­pse into the Bhutanese socie­ty and their views on hap­pi­ness in face of adver­si­ty. We also explo­re Amber’s dreams and ambi­ti­ons, pri­ma­ri­ly among them the dream of fin­ding love.

Credits:

BT 2024, 94 Min., Dzongkha OmU
Regie: Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó

Kamera: Arun Bhattarai,
Schnitt: Péter Sass

Trailer:
Agent Of Happiness – Unterwegs im Auftrag des Glücks | Kinotrailer OmdU | ab 03.07.25 im Kino
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Der Fleck

A film by Willy Hans. In German with English subtitles.

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After esca­ping from gym class, Simon finds hims­elf on the banks of a river with a group of teen­agers. Amidst the air mat­tres­ses and point­less chat­ter, time pas­ses as slug­gish­ly as the river water. Only when Marie appears and both are cata­pul­ted into the near­by river­si­de forest by an unex­pec­ted inci­dent they escape the lethar­gic group and enter the tim­e­l­ess realm of the enchan­ted landscape.

I would like to give a glim­pse of some­thing that coun­ters the exis­ten­ti­al loneli­ne­ss of our human pre­sent. Ultimately, redemp­ti­on lies in the encoun­ter.” Willy Hans

Credits:

DE/CH 2024, 94 Min., dt. OmeU
Regie & Schnitt: Willy Hans
Kamera: Paul Spengemann
mit: Leo Konrad Kuhn, Alva Schäfer, Shadi Eck, Felix Maria Zeppenfeld, Darja Mahotkin, Marlene Becker u. a. 

Trailer:
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Step across the border

Step across the border

A film by Nicolas Humbert and Werner Prenzel. In English with German subtitles.

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In this film two forms of artis­tic expres­si­on, impro­vi­sed music and cine­ma direct, are inter­re­la­ted. In both forms it is the moment that counts, the intui­ti­ve sen­se for what is hap­pe­ning in a space. Music and film come into exis­tence out of an inten­se per­cep­ti­on of the moment, not from the trans­for­ma­ti­on of a preor­da­i­ned plan. In impro­vi­sa­ti­on the plan is reve­a­led only at the end. One finds it. The other con­nec­tion con­cerns the work method: the film team as band. Much as musi­ci­ans com­mu­ni­ca­te via the music, our work, too, was rea­li­zed within a very small and fle­xi­ble team of equ­als. What mat­te­red was exch­an­ge. And move­ment. Sometimes we star­ted film­ing in the midd­le of the night, respon­ding to a new idea that had ari­sen only minu­tes befo­re. We had a fun­da­men­tal fee­ling for what we wan­ted to do, for what kind of film this should be. And we fol­lo­wed that fee­ling. It was all very instinctive.

Credits:

CH/DE 1989, 90 Min., engl. OmU,
Regie: Nicolas Humbert, Werner Prenzel
Kamera: Oscar Salgado
mit den Musiker*innen: Fred Frith, Iva Bittova, Tom Cora, Pavel Fajt, Eitetsu Hayashi, Zeena Parkins, Tim Hodgekison, Arto Lindsey, Bob Ostertag, John Zorn u.v.a.

Trailer:
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One to One: John & Yoko

A film by Kevin Macdonald. Starts June 26th at the fsk. Cineville Preview on June 25th. In English with German subitles

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An expan­si­ve and reve­la­to­ry insi­de look at John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s life in Greenwich Village in the ear­ly 1970s, ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO deli­vers an immersi­ve cine­ma­tic expe­ri­ence that brings to life elec­tri­fy­ing, never-befo­re-seen mate­ri­al and new­ly res­to­red foo­ta­ge of John and Yoko’s only full-length con­cert. Featuring mind-blo­wing music new­ly remi­xed and pro­du­ced by Sean Ono Lennon, the film is a seis­mic reve­la­ti­on that will chall­enge pre-exis­ting noti­ons of the ico­nic couple.

Credits:

UK 2024, 100 Min., engl. OmU
Regie: Kevin Macdonald

Kamera: David Katznelson
Schnitt: Sam Rice-Edwards 

Trailer:
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Archiv der Zukunft

A film by Joerg Burger. In German.

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Armies of moun­ted beet­les, arran­ged in rank and file. In dra­wers and glass con­tai­ners, rep­ti­les and birds sor­ted in the most magni­fi­cent forms. An almost macab­re beau­ty is found in the cata­logued sub-uni­ver­ses of the Natural History Museum Vienna: sub-uni­ver­ses that stand for the who­le ran­ge of evo­lu­ti­on and are part of the immense, expert­ly pre­pared coll­ec­tion of this world-renow­ned insti­tu­ti­on of know­ledge. With an appro­pria­te­ly curious atti­tu­de, Joerg Burger devo­tes gre­at atten­ti­on to this cumu­la­ti­ve archi­ve of pure rese­arch for its own sake, its exhi­bits and under­ly­ing craft­work, but first and fore­most to the peo­p­le who work there,…

Credits:

AT 2023, 92 Min., Deutsch
Regie & Kamera: Joerg Burger
Schnitt: Dieter Pichler

Trailer:
ARCHIV DER ZUKUNFT – Offizieller Trailer
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Good News

A film by Hannes Schilling. In German, English, Thai and Melayu with German subtitles

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The jour­na­list Leo hopes to final­ly make an inter­na­tio­nal breakth­rough with a report about a rebel group in Thailand. His fri­end Mawar helps him make local cont­acts. In return, Leo pro­mi­ses to sup­port him in start­ing over in Germany. But when the edi­tors sen­ding him the pho­to­grapher Julian wit­hout asking, Leo beco­mes incre­asing­ly ent­an­gled in a web of lies and moral­ly ques­tionable decisions.

Credits:

DE 2024, 75 Min., Deutsch, Englisch, Thai und Melayu mit deut­schen Untertiteln,
Regie: Hannes Schilling
Schnitt: Marie Fontanel, Paul Gröbel
Kamera: Falco Seliger

mit: Ilja Stahl, Sabree Matming, Dennis Scheuermann

Trailer:
GOOD NEWS (2024) TRAILER
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Copa 71

A film by Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine. In English/Spanish/Italian/French with German subtitles..

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»Why haven’t I seen this befo­re?« In the first sce­ne of Copa 71, American inter­na­tio­nal foot­bal­ler Brandi Chastain sta­res at her tablet in ama­ze­ment. She is wat­ching foo­ta­ge of the first ever inter­na­tio­nal women’s foot­ball tour­na­ment in Mexico City in 1971, Copa 71. Why is it that one of the best-atten­ded women’s sport­ing events of all time has been forgotten?

In 1970, the first European tour­na­ment took place in Italy; SC 07 Bad Neuenahr repre­sen­ted Germany. A year later, inter­na­tio­nal teams from Argentina, England, France, Denmark and Mexico com­pe­ted against each other in Mexico. This purely com­mer­cial event, which was not backed by FIFA, pro­ved a huge suc­cess, attrac­ting crowds of 100,000 to the sta­di­ums. Yet what could have been the launch pad for women’s foot­ball world­wi­de fai­led to attract any sup­port. Another ten years would pass befo­re the next inter­na­tio­nal tour­na­ment. In Taipei, Taiwan, SSG 09 Bergisch Gladbach beca­me world cham­pi­ons in 1981. This also paved the way for the for­ma­ti­on of an offi­ci­al women’s natio­nal team in Germany in 1982. One thing to note though: women’s foot­ball was offi­ci­al­ly ban­ned until 1970. Perhaps not sur­pri­sing then that ano­ther deca­de pas­sed befo­re the first FIFA Women’s World Cup was held, in China. The final saw Brandi Chastain score the win­ning penal­ty to help the US take the tro­phy home.

The film pres­ents archi­ve foo­ta­ge of the tour­na­ment, plus inter­views with the play­ers of the time – impres­si­ve per­so­na­li­ties who pro­vi­de vivid accounts of the pre­pa­ra­ti­ons and the tour­na­ment its­elf. A threa­ten­ed walk-out by the Mexican team over pay at one point put the tour­na­ment in jeo­par­dy, as did the ten­se atmo­sphe­re bet­ween the teams, still tan­gi­ble when wat­ching the film in the cinema.

Credits:

GB 2023, 91 Min., Englisch/Spanisch/Italienisch/Französisch mit deut­schen Untertiteln, Regie: Rachel Ramsay und James Erskine
Schnitt: Arturo Calvete und Mark Roberts
Kamera: Angela Neil

Trailer:
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Black Tea

A film by Abderrahmane Sissako. In Mandarin, French, English, Portugese with German subtitles

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Aya is a woman in her ear­ly thir­ties. After asto­nis­hing ever­yo­ne by say­ing “No” on her wed­ding day, she lea­ves the Ivory Coast for a new life in China. Living in an area whe­re the African dia­spo­ra meets the Chinese cul­tu­re, she finds a job in a tea bou­tique owned by Cai, a 45-year-old Chinese man. In the pri­va­cy of the shop’s back­room, Cai initia­tes Aya into the Chinese tea cerem­o­ny. As he tea­ches her this anci­ent art, their rela­ti­onship slow­ly grows into one of ten­der love. But for their bur­geo­ning pas­si­on to be sup­port­ed by trust, both of them must let go of their bur­dens and face up to their pasts.

Credits:

FR/MR/LU/TW/CI 2024, 111 Min., Mandarin, Französisch, Englisch, Portugiesisch OmU
Regie: Abderrahmane Sissako
Kamera: Aymerick Pilarski
Schnitt: Nadia Ben Rachid
mit Nina Mélo, Chang Han, Wu Ke-Xi, Michael Chang

Trailer:
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Moria Six

A film by enni­fer Mallmann. In Greek, Farsi, German, English with German subtitles.

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There was an eery silence after a fire had des­troy­ed the Moria camp com­ple­te­ly in September 2020. Not just local­ly, but in public dis­cour­se. The world did not seem par­ti­cu­lar­ly con­cer­ned with the inhu­ma­ne con­di­ti­ons in other camps on Europe’s exter­nal bor­ders or the count­less push­backs in the Mediterranean. Nor did the arrest of six ado­le­s­cents who were accu­sed of arson reso­na­te in any audi­ble way – though even a second glan­ce at the cir­cum­s­tances of the inves­ti­ga­ti­on and the cri­mi­nal pro­cee­dings reve­a­led the actions of the Greek judi­cia­ry to be ques­tionable. Not to men­ti­on the under­ly­ing refu­gee poli­cy of the European Union.
Jennifer Mallmann dares to take this second glan­ce with her film. At its cent­re is her cor­re­spon­dence with Hassan, one of the con­vic­ted youths, who tells her of his ever­y­day life, his desi­res and fears from pri­son. Calm, pre­cis­e­ly framed images docu­ment “nor­ma­li­ty” on the frin­ges of Fortress Europe. They show how stra­te­gi­cal iso­la­ti­on and the ensuing struc­tu­ral exclu­si­on work. If you want to know how our com­mu­ni­ty of nati­ons ima­gi­nes its future you only need to look at the new­ly-built futu­ristic high-secu­ri­ty camps, whe­re new arri­vals are trea­ted like peo­p­le who have com­mit­ted serious cri­mes. Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Credits:

DE 2024, 82 Min., OmU,
Regie: Jennifer Mallmann
Kamera: Sina Diehl
Schnitt: Maxie Borchert

Trailer:
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Spielerinnen

A film by Aysun Bademsoy. In German & Turkish with Turkish and German subtitles

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Aysun Bademsoy’s long-term obser­va­ti­on of Turkish fema­le soc­cer play­ers in Berlin-Kreuzberg focu­ses on the next gene­ra­ti­on 30 years after their first encoun­ter. Born and rai­sed in Germany, they still ask them­sel­ves the ques­ti­on: Do we real­ly feel accept­ed here? It seems as if a cul­tu­ral rift still defi­nes their lives. Referring back to the 1990s, their mothers today remi­nis­ce about a youth in which the game of soc­cer pro­vi­ded the space for emancipation.

Credits:

DE 2024, 86 Min., deutsch, tür­ki­sche OmU
Regie: Aysun Bademsoy

Kamera: Isabelle Casez, Ines Thomsen
Schnitt: Maja Tennstedt

Trailer:
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