A film by Cem Kaya. In German Turkish and English with German suntitles.

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The German Federal Republic’s 1961 recruit­ment agree­ment with Turkey not only brought “guest workers” to Germany but also their music. Cem Kaya’s den­se docu­men­ta­ry film essay is a tuto­ri­al in Turkish-German recent histo­ry that tells a tale of assem­bly line jobs, home­sick­ness and fami­ly reuni­fi­ca­ti­on, the bazaar in the ele­va­ted rail­way sta­ti­on at Berlin’s Bülowstraße, xeno­pho­bia and racism, the wistful songs of the ear­ly years and the hip-hop of the post-reuni­fi­ca­ti­on peri­od. These are the sto­ries shared by musi­ci­ans begin­ning with Metin Türköz and Yüksel Özkasap, to the psy­che­de­lic Derdiyoklar and the chart-top­ping rap­per Muhabbet. Their music has evol­ved a long way from that of German bands and has always deve­lo­ped out of the Turkish com­mu­ni­ty and its desi­res. This is the world of Radio Yilmaz, various music cas­set­te labels, pro­test rocker Cem Karaca’s German exi­le, and wed­ding bands that also sing in Kurdish and Arabic to meet the demands of the mar­ket. Extensive archi­val rese­arch and an inte­rest in Turkish popu­lar cul­tu­re are recur­ring the­mes in Cem Kaya’s work. With Aşk, Mark ve Ölüm, he has crea­ted a rhyth­mic and vivid­ly nar­ra­ted cine­ma­tic ency­clo­paed­ia of Turkish music in Germany.

Credits:

Aşk, Mark ve Ölüm
DE 2022, 96 Min., Türkisch, Deutsch, Englisch OmU
Regie: Cem Kaya
Buch Cem Kaya, Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay
Koautor*in Ufuk Cam
Kamera: Cem Kaya, Mahmoud Belakhel, Julius Dommer, Christian Kochmann
Schnitt: Cem Kaya
mit İsmet Topçu, Ömer Boral, Yüksel Ergin, İhsan Ergin, Metin Türköz, Adnan Türköz, Yüksel Özkasap, Cevdet Yıldırım, Ercan Demirel, Cavidan Ünal, Ata Canani, Cem Karaca, Betin Güneş, Aykut Şahin, Fehiman Uğurdemir, Cengiz Öztunç, Dede Deli, Mustafa Çetinol, Erdal Karayağız, İzzet Nihat Yarsaloğlu, Hatay Engin, Yasin Kıran, Aytaç Kıran, Serdar Saydan, Serkan Kaynarcalı, Rüştü Elmas, Mustafa Deniz, Oktay Vural, Orhan Amuroğlu, Ümit Gücüyener, Sultan Korkmaz, Bekir Karaoğlan, Ümit Çağlar, Ali Ekber Aydoğan, Killa Hakan, Kabus Kerim, Derya Yıldırım, Tümay Koyuncuoğlu, Rossi Pennino, Kutlu Yurtseven, Erci E., Alper Ağa, Boe B., Tahir Çevik, Volkan Türeli, Nellie, Muhabbet, Aziza A., İmran Ayata, Bülent Kullukcu, Ibrahim Ertalay, Ilkay Kökel, Mehmet Yozgut

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Afilm by Blerta Basholli. In Albanian with German subtitles.

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Fahrije’s hus­band has been con­side­red miss­ing sin­ce the end of the war – like so many other men from her vil­la­ge in rural Kosovo. When she deci­des one day to get her dri­ver­’s licen­se so she can sell her home­ma­de sau­ces in town, she imme­dia­te­ly faces oppo­si­ti­on from her con­ser­va­ti­ve, patri­ar­chal vil­la­ge. Fahrije, howe­ver, is not inti­mi­da­ted and soon other women dare to help her in this revo­lu­tio­na­ry ven­ture. The film, which won three awards at Sundance, tells the sto­ry of a dar­ing woman who, against all the odds, builds a new exis­tence for hers­elf and other women.

Credits:

XK, CH, AL, MK 2021, 84 Min., alba­ni­sche OmU
Buch & Regie: Blerta Basholli
Kamera: Alex Bloom
Schnitt: Félix Sandri, Enis Saraçimit: Yllka Gashi, Çun Lajçi, Aurita Agushi, Kumrije Hoxha, Adriana Matoshi

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A film by Alice Agneskirchner. In German.

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The title refers to the epony­mous 1937 poem by Else Lasker-Schüler, in which the poet wri­tes that “what once was: love” can be found at the cine­ma. Two deca­des on from this, it was a love of cine­ma that brought tog­e­ther two peo­p­le who signi­fi­cant­ly expan­ded – today one might say, diver­si­fied – the film histo­ry of post-war Germany, encom­pas­sing both the way films are view­ed as well as the dis­cour­se sur­roun­ding the medi­um: Erika and Ulrich Gregor.
Alice Agneskirchner’s docu­men­ta­ry fol­lows various paths to get right up clo­se to the foun­ders of Arsenal and the International Forum of New Cinema: on the one hand via the eventful life of the cou­ple, who have been mar­ried for over 60 years; on the other via tho­se who have accom­pa­nied them along the way, inclu­ding such pro­mi­nent figu­res as Jutta Brückner, Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmusch. The films of which the Gregors are par­ti­cu­lar­ly fond and to which they gave their full back­ing are also cen­tral, as the duo beco­mes reac­quain­ted with Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah, István Szabó’s Apa and Helke Sander’s Die all­sei­tig redu­zier­te Persönlichkeit – Redupers. This is not only a film about love and cine­ma but also a pie­ce of West German history.

Credits:

DE 2021, 155 Min.
Regie & Buch: Alice Agneskirchner
Kamera: Jan Kerhart
Schnitt: Silke Botsch
mit Erika Gregor, Ulrich Gregor

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A Film by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. In Japanese with German subtitles.

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As with the rest of his oeu­vre, dupli­ca­ti­on and mir­ro­ring of fema­le cha­rac­ters once again informs Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s latest work, Guzen to sozo. It would not be out of place to make a lite­ra­ry ana­lo­gy and, if one were to regard his two pre­vious films (Happy Hour and Asako I & II) as novels, this new work could be descri­bed as a coll­ec­tion of short sto­ries. The film’s recur­ring rhythm ampli­fies this effect. The three epi­so­des, which each revol­ve around a woman, are in turn divi­ded into three move­ments, like a pie­ce of music. They tell sto­ries of an unex­pec­ted love tri­ang­le, a fai­led seduc­tion trap, and an encoun­ter that results from a misun­derstan­ding. The frag­men­ta­ti­on ser­ves to empha­sise rather than under­mi­ne the exqui­si­te­ly orga­nic sto­rytel­ling and mise en scè­ne. Although most of the action takes place in a sin­gle space and invol­ves just two actors, not once does it feel like film­ed theat­re. The secret lies not only in the wri­ting, but also in the noti­on of a more com­plex tem­po­ra­li­ty in each epi­so­de that flirts with sci­ence fic­tion in the final inst­al­ment. The moments we wit­ness are crystal­li­sed into tou­ch­ing uni­ver­sal desti­nies mark­ed by choices, reg­rets, decep­ti­on and coin­ci­den­ces. They are the film’s true protagonists.

Credits:

JP 2021, 121 Min., jap. OmU
Regie & Schnitt: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Kamera: Yukiko Iioka
mit: Kotone Furukawa, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Katsuki Mori, Fusako Urabe, Aoba Kawai, Ayumu Nakajima, Hyunri, Shouma Kai

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A film by Annika Pinske. In German with English subtitles.

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Clara is 39 and is taking a PhD in phi­lo­so­phy. She lives in a Kreuzberg flat share while her teenage daugh­ter lives with her ex. Clara is having a secret rela­ti­onship with one of her stu­dents. Her the­sis super­vi­sor, the strong and inde­pen­dent Margot, pro­vi­des her with pro­fes­sio­nal encou­ra­ge­ment. When Clara visits her home in pro­vin­cial Mecklenburg-Vorpommern for her mother’s bir­th­day, she finds hers­elf strugg­ling with the pri­de and expec­ta­ti­ons but also with the rejec­tion of her fami­ly and for­mer com­pa­n­ions. She beg­ins to rea­li­se just how far she has moved away from her roots in her search for a self-deter­mi­ned life. But per­haps she had to move away. Because one’s per­cep­ti­on of home can chan­ge.
Annika Pinske’s quiet dra­ma is a stu­dy in fami­lia­ri­ty and distance, liber­ty and com­pul­si­on, the coun­try­si­de and the city. Sensitive, nuan­ced per­for­man­ces from an out­stan­ding cast with an assu­red com­mand of the local dialects allow the audi­ence to expe­ri­ence the atmo­sphe­res of both Berlin’s uni­ver­si­ty milieu and the rural fami­ly get-together.

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DE 2022, 89 Min.
Regie & Buch: Annika Pinske
Kamera: Ben Bernhard
Schnitt: Laura Lauzemis
mit Anne Schäfer, Anne-Kathrin Gummich, Judith Hofmann, Marcel Kohler, Max Riemelt, Emma Frieda Brüggler, Thomas Bading, Christine Schorn, Sandra Hüller, Alireza Bayram

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A film by Amjad Abu Alala. In Arabic with German subtitles.

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Muzamil was only a new­born when a pro­phe­cy fore­told his death at 20. His father is unable to live with this cur­se and aban­dons his fami­ly. Long resi­gned to his fate, the young man starts to ques­ti­on his preor­da­i­ned death when he meets Suleiman, a came­ra­man who has retur­ned to the vil­la­ge of his birth. The Sudanese direc­tor won the Lion of the Future at the 2019 Mostra di Venezia.

Credits:

SD 2019, 105 Min., OmU
Regie: Amjad Abu Alala
Schnitt: Heba Othman
Kamera: Sébastien Goepfert
mit: Mustafa Shehata, Islam Mubarak, Mahmoud Elsaraj, Bunna Khalid

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A film by Fernando León de Aranoa. In Spanish with German subtitles.

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„The Good Boss” takes place in and around the Blancos Básculas fac­to­ry, whe­re all things must be in balan­ce at all times. After all, they manu­fac­tu­re sca­les of all shapes and sizes. There, the see­mingly bene­vo­lent boss, Bardem’s Blanco, is pre­pa­ring his work­force for an upco­ming inspec­tion by a group visi­ting local busi­nesses to sel­ect one for a pres­ti­gious pri­ze. Tensions begin to mount, howe­ver, when recent­ly fired employee Jose shows up with his two child­ren and beg­ins making demands for the rein­state­ment of his employ­ment. When Blanco’s manage­ment team refu­ses, the employee beg­ins a one man cru­sa­de to dis­credit Blanco and pre­vent him from win­ning the much-cove­ted award.

Credits:

El buen patrón
ES 2021, 120 Min., span. OmU
Drehbuch und Regie: Fernando León de Aranoa
Schnitt: Vanessa Marimbert
mit: Javier Bardem, Manolo Solo, Almudena Amor, Óscar de la Fuente, Sonia Almarcha
Kamera: Pau Esteve Birba

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A film by Vincent Maël Cardona. In French with German subtitles.

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Brittany, 1980s.

A bunch of fri­ends year­ning for exci­te­ment broad­cast a free radio sta­ti­on from their home­town in the coun­try­si­de. Jerome leads it with uni­que cha­ris­ma while Philippe, the tech­ni­cal geni­us, lives in the shadow of Jerome, his big brot­her. When cal­led for the mili­ta­ry ser­vice, Philippe has no choice but to lea­ve for West Berlin. He’s deter­mi­ned to keep on broad­cas­ting, but rea­li­zes that he just lived the last glo­rious moments of a world on the ver­ge of extinction.

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Les Magnétiques
FR / DE 2021, 98 Min., frz. OmU
Regie: Vincent Maël Cardona
Kamera: Brice Pancot
Schnitt: Flora Volpelière
mit: Thimotée Robert, Marie Colomb, Joseph Olivennes, Meinhard Neumann

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A film by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. In Japanese and Uzbek with German subtitles.

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Yoko (play­ed by the for­mer lea­ding mem­ber of the idol girl group AKB48, Atsuko Maeda) is the repor­ter for a tele­vi­si­on tra­vel pro­gram who visits Uzbekistan with her tele­vi­si­on crew to make an epi­so­de for the pro­gram. She dreams of beco­ming a sin­ger. The film con­trasts Yoko’s upbeat on-came­ra per­so­na with her inter­nal con­flicts when she is on her own.

The film con­sists of a series of epi­so­des in which Yoko wades into a lake to descri­be loo­king for a pos­si­bly mythi­cal Uzbeki fish; pro­claims the deli­cious crun­chi­ness of under-coo­ked rice in a bowl of plov, a local dish; repea­ted­ly takes nau­sea-indu­cing turns on a fun-park pen­dulum ride until her came­ra crew can get enough B‑camera foo­ta­ge of her face; and tri­es to libe­ra­te a goat in cap­ti­vi­ty named Okoo only to learn that if she does, it will be eaten by wild dogs.

She and the crew visit Samarkand and Tashkent; in the lat­ter, she sings the clas­sic Édith Piaf anthem, Hymne à l’a­mour (with Japanese lyrics], in a fan­ta­sy sequence set at the Navoi Theatre which (as noted below) had been built after the war by Japanese POWs. During a visit to the bazaar, she wan­ders off with a hand-held came­ra and starts video­ta­ping in a rest­ric­ted area. She runs away from the poli­ce, who even­tual­ly appre­hend her but tre­at her kind­ly, espe­ci­al­ly when she lear­ns that her fire­figh­ter boy­fri­end may have been invol­ved in a mas­si­ve oil refi­nery fire in Tokyo Bay, whe­re he was sta­tio­ned. (The boy­fri­end is never actual­ly seen or heard; all the audi­ence lear­ns about him comes from texts he exch­an­ges with Yoko.)

In a fina­le set in the moun­ta­ins, her crew once again in pur­su­it of a likely mythi­cal beast, she again sings Hymne à l’a­mour as she ima­gi­nes that she has caught sight of Okoo run­ning free in the distance.

Credits:

Tabi no Owari Sekai no Hajimari (旅のおわり世界のはじまり)
UZ 2019, 120 Min. japa­nisch, usbe­ki­sche OmU
Regie: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Kamera: Akiko Ashizawa
Schnitt: Koichi Takahashi
mit: Atsuko Maeda, Shota Sometani, Tokio Emoto, Adiz Rajabov, Ryo Kase

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A film by Carla Simón. In Catalan with German and English subtitles.

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For as long as they can remem­ber, the Solé fami­ly has spent every sum­mer picking the pea­ches in their orchard in Alcarràs, a small vil­la­ge in Spain’s Catalonia regi­on. But this year’s crop may well be their last, as they face evic­tion. The new plans for the land, which include cut­ting down the peach trees and instal­ling solar panels, cau­se a rift in this lar­ge, tight-knit fami­ly. For the first time, they face an uncer­tain future and risk losing more than their orchard.
After her beau­tiful debut Summer 1993, Carla Simón draws again on her expe­ri­ence of rural life in the Catalan coun­try­si­de, whe­re human acti­vi­ty is part of a cycle gover­ned by sea­sons in a capri­cious cli­ma­te. Family dyna­mics may be mud­di­ed by eco­no­mic con­cerns, but the­re are also dif­fe­ren­ces in how each indi­vi­du­al rela­tes to time. The youn­ger ones enjoy a see­mingly ever­las­ting pre­sent while father bul­lish­ly igno­res the immi­nent future, and grand­fa­ther is rely­ing on a long-for­got­ten pro­mi­se to pro­ve owner­ship of their house … This varie­ty is well-ser­ved by the natu­ral per­for­man­ces of the ensem­ble cast and ensu­res that poli­ti­cal­ly rele­vant the­mes are pre­sen­ted to us in a subt­le man­ner. The fami­ly is only able to find com­mon ground in tra­di­ti­on, which lea­ves us with a genui­ne dis­com­fort about what lies ahead.

Goldener Bär – Berlinale 2022

Credits:

ES/IT 2022, 120 Min., kata­la­ni­sche Originalfassung mit deut­schen und eng­li­schen Untertitlen
Regie: Carla Simón
Buch: Arnau Vilaró, Carla Simón
Kamera: Daniela Cajías
Schnitt: Ana Pfaff
mit Jordi Pujol Dolcet, Anna Otin, Xènia Roset, Albert Bosch, Ainet Jounou, Josep Abad, Montse Oró, Carles Cabós, Berta Pipó

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