A film by Jan Speckenbach.  In German.

A mother goes away, lea­ving her hus­band and their two child­ren in lim­bo. She is dri­ven by a force she can­not igno­re: free­dom. In Vienna, Nora wan­ders through a muse­um, suc­cumbs to a flir­ta­ti­on and then thumbs a lift to Bratislava. Nora con­ce­als her ori­gin behind small lies, chan­ges her appearance, finds work as a cham­ber­maid and makes fri­ends with the young Slovak woman Etela, a strip­per, and her hus­band Tamás, a cook. Meanwhile in Berlin, Philip tri­es to keep his fami­ly and job as well as his affair with Monika going. Against his own con­vic­tions, he, a lawy­er, defends a xeno­pho­bic youngs­ter, strug­gles with the role of sin­gle parent. Philip finds an – albeit uncon­scious – ear for his worries in the figu­re of a coma pati­ent… The free­dom Nora is lon­ging for beco­mes Philip’s chains.

 
Credits:
Deutschland, Slowakei 2017, 100 Min.
Buch, Regie, Schnitt: Jan Speckenbach
Kamera: Tilo Hauke
Mit: Johanna Wokalek, Hans-Jochen Wagner, Inga Birkenfeld, Andrea Szabová, Ondrej Koval
 
Termine:

• noch kei­ne / oder kei­ne mehr 

A film by Hélène Angel. In french with ger­man subtitles.

This is a viva­cious and emo­tio­nal­ly grip­ping sto­ry of a tea­cher caught bet­ween pas­si­on for her stu­dents and love for her child. Devoted pri­ma­ry school-tea­cher Florence (Sara Forestier) is a sin­gle mother who pours her heart and soul into her stu­dents each and every day. When she encoun­ters the dis­rup­ti­ve stu­dent Sacha and finds he has been aban­do­ned by his mother, Florence devo­tes hers­elf to hel­ping him. But Sacha’s plight com­bi­ned with her impen­ding work assess­ment put unthinkable strain on Florence, pushing her to a brea­king point whe­re she will put ever­y­thing on the line, inclu­ding her voca­ti­on and even her rela­ti­onship with her own son. While direc­tor Hélène Angel super­b­ly con­trasts the enter­tai­ning ener­gy and colour of the class­room with the lonely and con­fu­sed world of Sacha, Forestier deli­vers a magni­fi­cent per­for­mance as a woman unwil­ling to com­pro­mi­se her morals, resul­ting in a remar­kab­ly honest, opti­mi­stic and engros­sing por­tra­y­al of school life.

Credits:
Primaire, Frankreich 2016, 105 Min., franz. OmU
Regie: Hélène Angel 
Drehbuch: Hélène Angel, Yann Coridian 
Kamera: Yves Angelo 
Schnitt: Christophe Pinel
mit: Albert Cousi, Ghillas Bendjoudi, Sara Forestier, Vincent Elbaz Produktion: Hélène Cases

Termine:

• noch kei­ne / oder kei­ne mehr 

A film by Lav Diaz. In phil­ip­pi­ne with ger­man subtitles.

Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2016 Venice Film Festival, Filipino film­ma­ker Lav Diaz’s epic sto­ry of reven­ge defer­red func­tions as a tale of urban thea­ter and class war­fa­re. After 30 years in pri­son, a woman dis­co­vers that her fri­end and fel­low inma­te com­mit­ted the mur­der of which she was accu­sed. This leads to her release and sub­se­quent dis­co­very of the man who framed her. Inspired by Tolstoy, The Woman Who Left is a sen­si­ti­ve expres­si­on of fami­ly and forgiveness.

 
Ang Babaeng Humayo, Philippinen 2016, 228 min, phil­ip. OmU,
Regie, Kamera & Schnitt: Lav Diaz
Buch: Lav Diaz, nach der Erzählung von Leo Tolstoi („Gott sieht die Wahrheit, aber sagt sie nicht sogleich“)
mit: Charo Santos-Concio, John Lloyd Cruz, Michael De Mesa, Nonie Buencamino. 
 
Termine:

• noch kei­ne / oder kei­ne mehr 

A film by Eliza Hittman. In eng­lish with ger­man subtitles.

Frankie, an aim­less teen­ager living on the outer edges of Brooklyn, is having a trou­ble­so­me sum­mer. With his father dying and his mother wan­ting him to find a girl­fri­end, he tri­es to escape the ble­ak­ne­ss of his home life by caus­ing trou­ble with his delin­quent fri­ends and flir­ting with older men online. When his chat­ting and web­camming inten­si­fy, he final­ly starts hoo­king up with guys at a near­by crui­sing beach while simul­ta­neous­ly ente­ring into a cau­tious rela­ti­onship with a young woman. As Frankie strug­gles to recon­ci­le his com­pe­ting desi­res, his decis­i­ons lea­ve him hurt­ling toward irrepa­ra­ble consequences.

• noch kei­ne / oder kei­ne mehr 

A film by Mouly Surya. In indo­ne­si­an with ger­man subtitles.

A young widow vio­lent­ly turns the tables on her would-be atta­ckers, in this powerful, pro­vo­ca­ti­ve, and visual­ly stun­ning Indonesian take on the „femi­nist wes­tern” genre.

Powerful, pro­vo­ca­ti­ve, and visual­ly stun­ning, Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts is a lumi­nous new ent­ry in the femi­nist wes­tern sub­gen­re. Mouly Surya’s accom­plished third fea­ture is one of a kind: a con­tem­po­ra­ry rewor­king of the spa­ghet­ti wes­tern and smould­e­ring reven­ge movie that is deep­ly roo­ted in the cul­tu­ral and geo­po­li­ti­cal land­scapes of Indonesia.

Marlina (Marsha Timothy) is a young widow, living alo­ne in a remo­te farm­house with the embal­med corp­se of her decea­sed hus­band. When rob­bers arri­ve, entit­led by cen­tu­ries of male domi­na­ti­on, to ste­al her live­stock, sei­ze her pos­ses­si­ons, and rape her, Marlina has only her cou­ra­ge and intel­li­gence to rely on. She thinks fast and acts even fas­ter. The next day finds her on the road, hit­ching a ride to town with a sever­ed head in one hand and a sab­re in the other.

A tale of repos­s­es­sed strength and per­so­nal iden­ti­ty, the film fea­tures a com­pel­ling prot­ago­nist and intro­du­ces a gal­lery of other sple­ndid fema­le cha­rac­ters, espe­ci­al­ly „10-months” pregnant Novi (Dea Panendra).

Surya builds ten­si­on with an assu­red mise en scè­ne then dis­si­pa­tes it with bubbly bursts of cau­st­ic humour, play­ing with ove­r­used cine­ma­tic lan­guages to find a genui­ne new style. Witty and sub­ver­si­ve, Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts is a bold and wel­co­me affront to the staid sen­si­bi­li­ties of male-cent­red cine­ma culture.

GIOVANNA FULVI

mit: Marsha Timothy, Dea Panendra, Yoga Pratama, Rita Matu Mona
 
Termine:

• noch kei­ne / oder kei­ne mehr 

A film by Barbara Albert. In german.

Set in 1770s Vienna, LICHT fol­lows an aspi­ring young harp­s­ichor­dist who­se magi­cal play­ing has alre­a­dy gai­ned noti­ce among high socie­ty. A fly in the oint­ment: the pro­di­gy is a woman, and blind. Maria Theresia von Paradis plays by ear and instinct, with heigh­ten­ed sen­ses, yet her atten­ti­ve mother and father want not­hing more than to res­to­re her sight, by wha­te­ver means pos­si­ble. Maria Theresia and her par­ents are soon at the door­step of a phy­si­ci­an who is just begin­ning to estab­lish a repu­ta­ti­on in vien­nese socie­ty: Dr. Mesmer. LICHT revol­ves around this doc­tor-pati­ent rela­ti­onship, allo­wing Albert to del­ve into a series of the­mes: gen­der dyna­mics; sci­ence ver­sus art; age and youth. Mesmer was per­cei­ved by the non-aco­lytes as a bit of a quack, but under his gent­le care, Theresia makes see­mingly mira­cu­lous pro­gress. Meanwhile socie­ty grows sus­pi­cious, her play­ing style is affec­ted, and Theresia’s once-sup­port­i­ve fami­ly beg­ins to doubt Mesmer. (Toronto Film Festival)

Credits:
Österreich/D, 2017, 97 Min.

Regie: Barbara Albert
Drehbuch: Kathrin Resetarits
based on the novel «Mesmerized» by Alissa Walser
Kamera: Christine A. Maier
Schnitt: Niki Mossböck

mit:
Maria Dragus
Devid Striesow
Lukas Miko
Katja Kolm

A film by Fernando Pérez. In spa­nish with ger­man subtitles.

Diego and Miguel are both in their mid-for­ties. They are living in a dila­pi­da­ted apart­ment in cen­tral Havana wit­hout run­ning water or any modern amen­i­ties. Miguel ear­ns his money washing dis­hes in a pri­va­te­ly run restau­rant; he, his fami­ly and neigh­bours also care for Diego, who is bedrid­den on account of his HIV infec­tion. While Diego tri­es to main­tain his joie de viv­re, Miguel beco­mes incre­asing­ly with­drawn. Only the two of them know about Miguel’s secret: he is plan­ning to emi­gra­te to the USA and is just wai­ting for his visa. When Diego’s con­di­ti­on dete­rio­ra­tes he is forced to go into hos­pi­tal and lea­ves his room to his nie­ce Yusi. When Miguel’s visa final­ly arri­ves it’s time for some sur­pri­sing decis­i­ons – and not just for him. Writer, docu­men­ta­ry film­ma­ker and direc­tor Fernando Pérez has based his screen­play on the lives of the inha­bi­tants of a tene­ment buil­ding. The resul­ting film pres­ents a vibrant kalei­do­scope of emo­ti­ons. Unfolding in tran­quil images, this sto­ry of an unu­su­al fri­end­ship also pro­vi­des an insight into a cul­tu­re in tran­si­ti­on that requi­res con­stant fle­xi­bi­li­ty and incre­di­ble opti­mism. A decla­ra­ti­on of love to the Cuban capi­tal and its inhabitants.

A film by Martin McDonagh. In eng­lish with ger­man subtitles.

Mildred Hayes has lost her teenage daugh­ter who was raped and kil­led. Because the local she­riff does not put enough effort into the search for the kil­ler, Mildred is get­ting acti­ve by herself.(Viennale)

• noch kei­ne / oder kei­ne mehr 

A film by Amat Escalante. In spa­nish with ger­man subtitles.

A mete­or strikes in the moun­ta­ins of Mexico. Down below in the val­ley, Alejandra and Ángel’s mar­ria­ge is in trou­ble: road worker Ángel is having an affair with Alejandra’s brot­her Fabián, despi­te his macho deme­an­or. Then an ali­en crea­tu­re appears, spre­a­ding lust and des­truc­tion. A mix of sci-fi and social dra­ma, Amat Escalante’s film was shot in his home town of Guanajuato by Chilean-Danish DoP Alberto Claro, who also len­sed MELANCHOLIA and NYMPHOMANIAC for Lars von Trier.

• noch kei­ne / oder kei­ne mehr 

A film by Tyler Hubby. In eng­lish with ger­man subtitles.

A clip from the noto­rious 1963 Jack Smith nudie FLAMING CREATURES, on which Tony Conrad work­ed, segues into his own cine­ma­tic affront, a light show cal­led THE FLICKER, the bad boy of the 1966 New York Film Festival. There was vomi­ting at the pre­mie­re; the pro­jec­tion­ist suf­fe­r­ed a migrai­ne. “No LSD nee­ded!” says film­ma­ker Larry Seven, one of the on-came­ra sub­jects in this film. TONY CONRAD: COMPLETELY IN THE PRESENT is a sharp, sweet, elo­quent docu­men­ta­ry about the mer­riest, most artis­ti­cal­ly expan­si­ve mini­ma­list on record: musi­ci­an, edu­ca­tor, acti­vist Tony Conrad. The violinist’s tran­ce­li­ke dro­ning tech­ni­que (“the first non-bag­pi­pe Western dro­ne music,” he once cal­led it) caught hold, in its ste­alt­hy way, in the 1960’s with (among others) John Cale and Lou Reed. Conrad’s work and his life asser­ted the importance of lis­tening for the sounds nobo­dy else has heard. He died this year at the age of 76. (Michael Phillips)

• noch kei­ne / oder kei­ne mehr 

Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present (Trailer) from Salzgeber & Co. Medien GmbH on Vimeo.