A film by Hans Block & Moritz Riesewieck. 

Dive into a secret, third-world shadow indus­try of online con­tent mode­ra­ti­on. Here we meet five “digi­tal sca­ven­gers,” a handful of thou­sands of peo­p­le out­sour­ced from Silicon Valley who­se job is to dele­te “inap­pro­pria­te” con­tent off of the inter­net. In a par­al­lel strugg­le, we meet peo­p­le around the glo­be who­se lives are dra­ma­ti­cal­ly affec­ted by online cen­sor­ship. A typi­cal “clea­ner” must obser­ve and rate thou­sands of inten­se images every day, from war zone pho­to­gra­phy to por­no­gra­phy, lea­ding to las­ting psy­cho­lo­gi­cal impacts. Yet under­neath their work lies pro­found ques­ti­ons around what makes an image art or pro­pa­gan­da and what defi­nes journalism.

The Cleaners reve­als the bit­ter rea­li­ty that social media is as much a tool for expres­si­on as it is a plat­form for radi­cal­i­zed social and poli­ti­cal opi­ni­ons, the impacts of which are still unknown. Debut direc­tors Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck unpack an urgent con­ver­sa­ti­on sur­roun­ding Silicon Valley’s con­trol over our per­cep­ti­on of free speech that we must all grapp­le with as it threa­tens to unra­vel the fabric of our socie­ty: both online and IRL.

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

Ein Film von Thomas Frickel.

Shortly befo­re Christmas 1991 a his­to­ri­cal DC‑3 cra­s­hes near Heidelberg with artist Martin Kirchberger and his team on board. Kirchberger‘s fri­end, film­ma­ker Thomas Frickel, exami­nes the cir­cum­s­tances of the tra­ge­dy and Kirchberger‘s short career.

Shortly befo­re Christmas 1991 a his­to­ri­cal DC‑3 cra­s­hes near Heidelberg with artist Martin Kirchberger and his team on board. Kirchberger‘s fri­end, film­ma­ker Thomas Frickel, exami­nes the cir­cum­s­tances of the tra­ge­dy and Kirchberger‘s short career.

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

A film by Stéphane Brizé.  In french with ger­man subtitles.

Based on a novel by Guy de Maupassant and sha­ring the­mes (male tre­a­chery, suf­fe­ring) as well as a title with Mikio Naruse’s 1963 dra­ma, Stéphane Brizé’s gor­ge­ous peri­od pie­ce explo­res the bleak lot of an aris­to­cra­tic hei­ress in 19th-cen­tu­ry France. Shot in boxy 1.33:1 ratio, and kissed by fli­cke­ring cand­le­light, this a world so per­sua­si­ve­ly rea­li­sed that you can almost smell the damp that rises, along with the debt. We fol­low Jeanne (Judith Chemla) from the clear-eyed hop­eful­ness of youth to late midd­le age; it’s a per­for­mance that is so com­pel­ling that we for­gi­ve the film its fair­ly dis­pi­ri­ting tra­jec­to­ry and por­tra­y­al of a woman who often seems litt­le more than a hel­p­less chat­tel. (The Guardian)

Credits:
F/B 2016, 119 Min., franz. OmU
Regie: Stéphane Brizé, Kamera: Antoine Héberlé
Schnitt: Anne Klotz
mit:Judith Chemla, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Yolande Moreau, Swann Arlaud

Termine:

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

Ein Film von Sobo Swobodnik.

Therapie für Gangster zeigt das Leben und die Wirklichkeit im Maßregelvollzug aus der Sicht sucht­kran­ker Straftäter , fern­ab der Gesellschaft mit ihren eige­nen Regeln und Gesetzen. Zwischen dem all­täg­li­chen Kampf gegen den Suchtdruck, die eige­ne Schuld und die Einsamkeit betrach­tet der Film dabei die Menschen hin­ter dem Profil des Täters. Menschen, die ver­su­chen, die letz­te Chance ihres miss­glück­ten Lebens wahr­zu­neh­men, anstatt in den aus­sichts­lo­sen Abgründen der Gefängnisse erneut hoff­nungs­los zu verschwinden.

Ein Film, der sen­si­ble Einblicke in eine für Außenstehende nor­ma­ler­wei­se ver­schlos­se­ne Welt preis­gibt und Menschen zeigt, die in die­ser Form sel­ten von der Gesellschaft wahr­ge­nom­men werden.

Credits:
Deutschland 2017, 86 Min.
Regie: Sobo Swobodnik
Buch: Sobo Swobodnik, Eckhard Geitz
Kamera: Sobo Swobodnik
Schnitt: Manuel Stettner

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

A film by Andreas Wolff. In ara­bic with ger­man subtitles.

D, Saudi-Arabien 2017 89 Min. OmU – Arabisch mit dt. Untertiteln
Regie: Stefanie Brockhaus, Andreas Wolff
Kamera: Tobias Tempel, Stefanie Brockhaus
Schnitt: Hansjörg Weissbrich, Anja Pohl

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

[nbsp]

A film by Alice Agneskirchner. In german.

Where do we as humans find our­sel­ves on the sca­le: are we nature’s – our world’s – pro­tec­tors or its des­troy­ers? In expan­si­ve film thea­ter images we will enter the wild ani­mals’ cos­mos– not in Africa, but here at home. In one of the most beau­tiful land­scapes in Europe – in the German, Austrian, French and Swiss alps – we will pose this ques­ti­on to huma­ni­ty on the basis of the con­di­ti­on of the forests, their owners, the wild ani­mals, their hun­ters and the far­mers in the cycle of the seasons.

The ques­ti­on “Who Owns Nature?” imme­dia­te­ly leads to the next ques­ti­on: what is natu­re? Almost all of us live in cities. What most of us under­stand to be natu­re is: the plants, the city park or what we see when we tra­vel with a train or car from one city to the next. But is the green mea­dow natu­re? Is the forest, which flies by us one tree trunk at a time, natural?
So who do the deer, stags, cha­mois, wild boars, hares, foxes, lyn­xes, bears or wol­ves belong to? They have no owners. They belong to them­sel­ves; they are a part of natu­re. However, to be pre­cise, natu­re no lon­ger exists in Europe. There are “green” sur­faces that are used and plan­ted agri­cul­tu­ral­ly. The wild ani­mals share their habi­tats with us. Who deter­mi­nes how we live with them?

In opti­cal­ly lavish images, the film takes us into the uni­que world of the wild ani­mals, archaic land­scapes, sea­sons – and the hun­ters. In the heart of our wes­tern civi­liza­ti­on, we enter a world that doesn’t seem to fit to our con­tem­po­ra­ry age. Mountain goats, bel­lo­wing stags, a pack of wol­ves, forest ran­gers, far­mers, wild­life bio­lo­gists, hun­ting oppon­ents and hun­ters: they are all prot­ago­nists in a dra­ma­tic alpi­ne play.

Credits:
Deutschland 2018, 96 Min.
Buch und Regie: Alice Agneskirchner
Kamera: Johannes Imdahl, Owen Prümm
Montage: André Hammesfahr
Kommentar: Patrick Winczewski
Musik: Gert Wilden Jr.

Termine:

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

A Film by Thomas Stuber. In german.

Christian is new to the super­s­to­re. He mute­ly plun­ges into this unknown uni­ver­se: the end­less ais­les, the eter­nal order of the warehou­ses, the sur­re­al mecha­ni­cisms of the for­k­lift trucks. His col­le­ague Bruno from the drinks depart­ment takes him under his wing, show­ing him all the tricks of the trade and soon beco­mes a fat­her­ly fri­end. Marion from the con­fec­tion­a­ry depart­ment likes to have a bit of a laugh and a joke with Christian. When he falls in love with her, the enti­re warehouse is roo­ting for him. But Marion is mar­ried, albeit unhap­pi­ly by all accounts. All of a sud­den she goes on sick lea­ve. Christian falls into a deep hole, so deep in fact, that his mise­ra­ble old life threa­tens to engulf him once more.
In his film In den Gängen Thomas Stuber opens a win­dow on the world of an ordi­na­ry worker in the east German pro­vin­ces. A cho­reo­gra­phy of peo­p­le and things, rea­li­ty, desi­res and dreams unfolds in pre­cis­e­ly framed images. The ever­y­day is trans­for­med into a magi­cal rea­lism which tran­s­cends this ten­der love sto­ry to point ten­ta­tively towards the con­cept of hope.

Berlinale 2018 Competition

Credits:
Deutschland 2018, 125 Min.
Regie: Thomas Stuber
Buch: Clemens Meyer, Thomas Stuber
Kamera: Peter Matjasko
Schnitt: Kaya Inan
mit:
Franz Rogowski (Christian), Sandra Hüller (Marion), Peter Kurth (Bruno), Andreas Leupold (Rudi), Michael Specht (Paletten-Klaus), Ramona Kunze-Libnow (Irina), Henning Peker (Wolfgang), Steffen Scheumann (Norbert), Matthias Brenner (Jürgen), Gerdy Zint (Tino)

Termine:

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

A film by Govinda Van Maele.

Early one sum­mer mor­ning a young man, with a secret stas­hed away in a duf­fel bag, emer­ges from the forest. In a near­by vil­la­ge he asks around for work, but the far­mers, sus­pi­cious to the point of hosti­li­ty, are not very forth­co­ming. Only when Lucy, the mayor’s unru­ly daugh­ter, takes a liking to him, does the vil­la­ge chan­ge its atti­tu­de: he is prompt­ly offe­red a job as a farm­hand and a cara­van to live in.

As time pas­ses and he is gra­du­al­ly inte­gra­ted into the com­mu­ni­ty, it emer­ges that he’s not the only one with a past to hide. Something sinis­ter is lur­king under the imma­cu­la­te sur­face of this pic­tures­que litt­le world – and it is slow­ly dra­wing him in.

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

A film by Léonor Sérraill. In french with ger­man subtitles.

Paula cau­ses trou­ble whe­re­ver she turns up. The 31-year-old just cut hers­elf on her ex-boyfriend’s locked apart­ment door. With no money and no job she finds hers­elf on the streets of Paris, Persian cat in arms. Rejected by her mother, Paula sets off on an odys­sey through a city to which she has only just retur­ned after a trip abroad. A fri­end­ly stran­ger, a com­ple­te­ly unfit­ting job in a depart­ment store and a smart girl help her get back on her feet again. Life, howe­ver, has alre­a­dy plan­ned the next sur­pri­se. Léonor Seraille’s direc­to­ri­al debut sees the main character’s unstoppable ener­gy super­b­ly expres­sed by Laetitia Dosch. This gem of a dra­me­dy recei­ved the Caméra d’Or at Cannes.

 
Credits:
OT: Jeune Femme
Frankreich 2017, 97 Min., frz. OmU
Regie: Léonor Sérraill
Kamera: Émilie Noblet
Schnitt: Clémence Carré
mit:
Laetitia Dosch
Grégoire Monsaingeon
Souleymane Seye Ndiaye
Léonie Simaga
Nathalie Richard
 
Termine:

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

A film by Stephan Komandarev. 

In the span of twen­ty-four hours, the fate of various people’s lives will col­l­i­de and be affec­ted during each indi­vi­du­als taxi ride. All are vic­tims of the decli­ne of a suf­fe­ring nation.

We dri­ve through the streets of the city of Sofia and look through the eyes of dri­vers and cli­ents as hope slow­ly creeps in. We see that each decis­i­on we make has a ripp­le effect on others. We learn that even one person’s death could give ano­ther the chan­ce at a new life. That just one simp­le act of kind­ness will inde­ed make a difference.

These sto­ries are about love and indif­fe­rence, about devo­ti­on and loneli­ne­ss; all con­nec­ted by a radio show that poses ques­ti­ons but gives no ans­wers. This is a sto­ry about a society’s need for a new DIRECTION even if it was as inva­si­ve as open heart surgery

Bulgarien, Deutschland, Mazedonien 2017, 103 Min., bul­ga­risch, eng­li­sche OmU
Originaltitel: Posoki
Regie: Stephan Komandarev
Drehbuch: Simeon Ventsislavov, Stephan Komandarev
Kamera: Vesselin Hristov
Schnitt: Nina Altaparmakova
Darsteller: Vassil Vasilev–Zuek, Ivan Barnev, Assen Blatechki, Dobrin Dosev, Guerassim Gueorguiev, Irini Zhambonas, Vasil Banov, Troyan Gogov, Dimitar Banenkin, Stefan Denolyubov

DIRECTIONS | Trailer OV w/Engl. Subt. from ARRI Media GmbH on Vimeo.