a film by Elmar Imanov. In Azeri with German subtitles. 

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A fami­ly is coming apart: unem­ploy­ed actor Samir just wants to be left alo­ne; his wife Fidan thinks about taking on a job in Berlin and their son Mahmud just wants to get as far away from his par­ents as pos­si­ble. But then a dra­ma­tic inci­dent during a trip to the beach unco­vers the fami­ly’s weak spots pain­ful­ly. The film mas­terful­ly navi­ga­tes bet­ween the­se three cha­rac­ters and por­traits them as both stran­gers and accom­pli­ces at the same time. Cologne-based direc­tor Elmar Imanov’s film recei­ved the FIPRESCI Critics Award at this year’s International Film Festival in Rotterdam.

Credits:

DE/GE/AZ 2019, 92 Min., aze­ri OmU
Regie: Elmar Imanov
Kamera: Berta Valin Escofet und Driss Azhari
Schnitt: Ioseb „Soso” Bliadze
mit Rasim Jafarov, Zulfiyye Gurbanova, Mir-Mövsüm Mirzazade

Trailer:

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a film by Céline Sciamma. Starts March 17th at the fsk. In French with German subtitles. 

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Eight-year-old Nelly has just lost her bel­oved grand­mo­ther and is hel­ping her par­ents clean out her mother’s child­hood home. She explo­res the house and the sur­roun­ding woods whe­re her mum, Marion, used to play and whe­re she built the tree­house Nelly has heard so much about. One day her mother sud­den­ly lea­ves. That is when Nelly meets a girl of her own age in the woods, buil­ding a tree­house. Her name is Marion.
Taking part in the Berlinale for the second time, Céline Sciamma’s fifth film is a work of gre­at inten­si­ty and matu­ri­ty. Expressed via Claire Mathon’s lumi­nous autum­nal cine­ma­to­gra­phy, the director’s gaze explo­res an important moment in the tran­si­ti­on to adult­hood with poe­tic pre­cis­i­on. Once again, Sciamma exami­nes the big ques­ti­ons in life from a reso­lut­e­ly fema­le per­spec­ti­ve. The power of memo­ry and ima­gi­na­ti­on are explo­red in a uni­que, emo­tio­nal­ly reso­nant experience.

Credits:

FR 2021, 72 Min., frz. OmU
Regie, Buch: Céline Sciamma
Kamera: Claire Mathon
Schnitt: Julien Lacheray
mit Joséphine Sanz, Gabrielle Sanz, Nina Meurisse, Stéphane Varupenne, Margot Abascal

Trailer:

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a film by Antonia Kilian. In Arabic, Kurdish and German with German subtitles.

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Combat trai­ning ins­tead of forced mar­ria­ge and IS? 19-year-old Hala escapes from Minbij in North Syria across the Euphrates and ends up in the Kurdish mili­ta­ry. After her trai­ning she returns to her home­town as a poli­ce offi­cer with the inten­ti­on of saving her youn­ger sisters.

Credits:

DE/FI 2021, 92 Min., Arabisch, Kurdisch, Deutsch mit deut­schen Untertiteln
Regie: Antonia Kilian
Kamera: Antonia Kilian
Ton: Nadya Derwish
Schnitt: Arash Asadi

Trailer:

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a film by Wen Shipei . Starts janu­ary 27th at the fsk. In Mandarin with German subtitles.

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On a dark night, Xueming hits a pede­stri­an with his car and flees the sce­ne. Desperate to escape his fee­lings of guilt, he deci­des to approach the dead man’s wife, Mrs Liang. Meanwhile, the body is dis­co­ver­ed – ridd­led with bul­lets. Chen, the detec­ti­ve in char­ge of the inves­ti­ga­ti­on, beco­mes obses­sed with the case. Years later, all three remain caught in a tan­gled web of memo­ries and lies, despera­te­ly sear­ching for a truth that refu­ses to be revealed…

Credits:

Originaltitel: Re dai wang shi
CN 2021, 95 Min.,
Regie: Wen Shipei
Kamera: Cedric Cheung-Lau, Xiaosu Han, Zhang Heng, Andreas Thalhammer
Schnitt: Zhu Lin, Will Wei, Dong Jie, Noé Dodson, Cao Hangchen
mit: Eddie Peng, Peiyao Jiang, Zhang Yu, Sylvia Chang 

Trailer:

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a film by Andrea Segre. Starts December 30th at the fsk. In Italian with German subtitles

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Some things are very dif­fi­cult for a father to share with his son and the lat­ter can only start to under­stand them when he beco­mes a father. In February-April this year, Andrea Segre, who has been living in Rome for years, was blo­cked by the lock­down in Venice, the city of his father Ulderico. He was working the­re on two theat­re and cine­ma pro­jects on the city’s gre­at blights: tou­rism and high water. While he was film­ing the city was fro­zen and emp­tied befo­re his very eyes, res­to­ring it to natu­re and its histo­ry, and in some ways to him as well. He coll­ec­ted visu­al notes and spent that peri­od in his fami­ly home whe­re he del­ved into the past. Personal archi­ves in Super8 by the director’s father and the real prot­ago­nist of the film alter­na­te with mee­tings with Venetian inha­bi­tants, who talk about the rela­ti­onship bet­ween the city and water whilst expe­ri­en­cing the unex­pec­ted arri­val of the gre­at void that has inva­ded Venice and a lar­ge part of the world. The who­le thing is kept tog­e­ther by the director’s off screen voice, Teho Teardo’s music and an atmo­sphe­re of expec­tancy and ama­ze­ment that per­va­des the enti­re visu­al and exis­ten­ti­al mate­ri­al of this stran­ge journey.

Credits:

IT 2020, 68 Min., ital. OmU,
Buch & Regie: Andrea Segre
Kamera: Matteo Calore, Andrea Segre
Schnitt: Chiara Russo

Trailer:

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A film by Kitty Green. In English with German subtitles.

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Another day at the office. Jane, the new assistant to a powerful media mogul, is the first to arri­ve and, by the end of the film, will be the last to lea­ve. She does her job, endu­res her col­le­agues’ con­stant hosti­li­ty and appli­es hers­elf to her gro­wing pile of tasks with pains­ta­king pre­cis­i­on: prin­ting out sche­du­les, arran­ging tra­vel, orde­ring lunch and tidy­ing up her boss’s office. Without him ever once put­ting in an appearance in front of the came­ra, his exis­tence is none­thel­ess all-per­va­si­ve – for both Jane and the audi­ence. We hear him on the other end of the pho­ne repri­man­ding Jane; we also wit­ness the array of attrac­ti­ve young women who are pay­ing a visit to the com­pa­ny at his behest. Jane’s sus­pi­ci­ons and dis­com­fort spin out of con­trol as it beco­mes clear that she is part of an abu­si­ve sys­tem.
Assembled with visu­al rigour and nar­ra­ti­ve quietu­de, Kitty Green’s grip­ping fic­tion­al debut homes in on oppres­si­ve prac­ti­ces in a work­place and depicts the abu­se taking place behind clo­sed doors from the per­spec­ti­ve of tho­se who are its wil­ling or unwil­ling enablers. By the end, we may not have seen much, but we under­stand everything.

Credits:

US 2019, 87 Min., engl. OmU,
Regie: Kitty Green
Kamera: Michael Latham
Schnitt: Kitty Green, Blair McClendon
mit Julia Garner, Matthew Macfadyen, Makenzie Leigh, Kristine Froseth

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a film by Sabrina Sarabi. Starts January 20th at the fsk. In German with English subtitles.

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It‘s high sum­mer in the midd­le of nowhe­re, Mecklenburg, Germany. Five hou­ses, one bus stop, cows, and not­hing but fields. Twenty-four-year-old Christin (Saskia Rosendahl) lives on the farm of her long-term boy­fri­end Jan, twen­ty-five (Rick Okon). The exci­ting post-reuni­fi­ca­ti­on years that defi­ned her child­hood are long gone.
Her rela­ti­onship is love­l­ess. Her father drinks. Christin, too, keeps the cher­ry liqueur under her car seat. In the shim­me­ring heat of sum­mer, time seems to stand still – until for­ty-six-year-old wind ener­gy engi­neer Klaus (Godehard Giese) arri­ves from Hamburg and sets the world spin­ning again.

Credits:

DE 2021, 116 Min., dt. O.m.engl. U.
Buch und Regie: Sabrina Sarabi
nach dem Roman von Alina Herbing
Kamera: Max Preiss
Schnitt: Heike Parplies
mit: Saskia Rosendahl, Rik Okon, Godehard Giese, Enno Trebs, Peter Moltzen, Anne Weinknecht

Trailer:

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a film by Maggie Gyllenhaal.

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Alone on a sea­si­de vaca­ti­on, Leda beco­mes con­su­med with a young mother and daugh­ter as she wat­ches them on the beach. Unnerved by their com­pel­ling rela­ti­onship, (and their rau­cous and men­acing exten­ded fami­ly), Leda is over­whel­med by her own memo­ries of the ter­ror, con­fu­si­on and inten­si­ty of ear­ly mother­hood. An impul­si­ve act shocks Leda into the stran­ge and omi­nous world of her own mind, whe­re she is forced to face the uncon­ven­tio­nal choices she made as a young mother and their consequences.

Credits:

US/GB/GR/IL 2021, 121 Min., engl. OmU
Buch und Regie: Maggie Gyllenhaal
nach dem Roman „Frau im Dunkeln” von Elena Ferrante
Kamera: Hélène Louvart
Schnitt: Affonso Gonçalves
mit: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Ed Harris, Peter Sarsgaard, Paul Mescal, Dagmara Dominczyk, Alba Rohrwacher

Trailer:

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a film by Behtash Sanaeeha, Maryam Moghaddam. In Farsi with German subtitles.

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Mina’s life is tur­ned upsi­de down when she lear­ns that her hus­band Babak was inno­cent of the crime for which he was exe­cu­ted. The aut­ho­ri­ties apo­lo­gi­se for the mista­ke and offer the pro­s­pect of finan­cial com­pen­sa­ti­on. Mina starts a silent batt­le against a cyni­cal sys­tem for her own and her daughter’s sake. Just as her money is run­ning out, a stran­ger named Reza knocks at her door, say­ing he has come to repay a debt he owed to Babak. Mina is guard­ed at first, but incre­asing­ly lets Reza into her life, una­wa­re of the secret that ties them to one ano­ther.
Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghaddam mas­terful­ly pre­sent guilt and ato­ne­ment, a clas­sic tro­pe of Iranian film, as a cine­ma of small, pre­cise ges­tu­res and spaces. Maryam Moghaddam excels in the role of a Mina caught bet­ween loneli­ne­ss and her strugg­le for self-determination.

Credits:

Ghasideyeh gave sefid
IR/FR 2020, 105 Min., far­si OmU
Buch und Regie: Behtash Sanaeeha, Maryam Moghaddam
Kamera: Amin Jafari
Schnitt: Ata Mehrad, Behtash Sanaeeha
mit Maryam Moghaddam, Alireza Sanifar, Pourya Rahimisam, Avin Purraoufi, Farid Ghobadi, Lili Farhadpour

Trailer:

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a film by Pawo Choyning Dorji. In Dzongkha with German subtitles.

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Struggling with his pro­fes­si­on as a tea­cher, Ugyen is sent to Lunana in nor­t­hern Bhutan for his final year of trai­ning. With a warm wel­co­me, the local child­ren try to win him over but they do not have much time.

Credits:

BT/CN 2021, 109 Min., Dzongkha OmU
Buch und Regie: Pawo Choyning Dorji
Schnitt: Hsiao-Yun Ku
Kamera: Jigme Tenzing
mit: Sherab Dorji, Ugyen Norbu Lhendup, Pem Zam, Kelden Lhamo Gurung

Trailer:

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