A film by Andrei Konchalovsky.In rus­si­an, ger­man, french and yid­dish with ger­man subtitles

The film is built around the intert­wi­ning desti­nies of three main cha­rac­ters during the Second World War: Russian aris­to­crat-emi­grant and mem­ber of the French Resistance Olga (Yuliya Vysotskaya), a French col­la­bo­ra­tor Jules (Philippe Duquesne) and a high-ran­king SS offi­cer Helmut (Christian Clauss).

Olga is arres­ted for hiding Jewish child­ren from the Nazi roun­dups. Her case is over­seen by Jules. He is inte­res­ted in her and it seems that in exch­an­ge for sexu­al rela­ti­ons he is rea­dy to sof­ten the fate of pri­soner, but this does not to hap­pen. A chi­me­ric hope of free­dom is repla­ced by cruel rea­li­ty – Olga lands into a German con­cen­tra­ti­on camp. There she meets Helmut who in the past was hope­l­ess­ly in love with her. Strange and pain­ful rela­ti­ons com­mence bet­ween them. The Nazis are alre­a­dy clo­se to defeat, and Helmut deci­des to save Olga from the camp and run away with her to South America. Olga, having lost hope of free­dom agrees, but at the last moment rea­li­zes that her idea of para­di­se has changed.[8]

Russland/Deutschland 2016, 130 min., rus­sisch, deut­sche, fran­zö­si­sche, hebäi­sche OmU
Regie: Andrei Konchalovsky
Drehbuch: Andrei Konchalovsky, Elena Kiseleva.
Darsteller: Julia Vysotskaya, Philippe Duquesne, Christian Clauß, Peter Kurth, Jacob Diehl, George Lenz, Viktor Sukhorukov, Anna-Mariya Danilenko, Anastasiya Serova, Yaroslav Khimchenko, Jean Denis Römer, Caroline Piette

A film by George Sluizer.  In eng­lish with ger­man subtitles.

Boy, a young widower with nati­ve American roots, lives in a desert in the USA con­ta­mi­na­ted by nuclear tests. In this deso­la­te place, sur­roun­ded by kat­chi­na dolls which the indi­ge­nous popu­la­ti­on belie­ves pos­sess magi­cal powers, he awaits the end of the world. His refu­ge is sud­den­ly inva­ded by Harry and Buffy, a cou­ple second honey­moo­ning in an attempt to save their mar­ria­ge. When their Bentley breaks down in the midd­le of nowhe­re, Boy offers to help. But then, hoping to cross over into a bet­ter world with Buffy, he starts trea­ting them like pri­soners. When Dark Blood’s lea­ding actor River Phoenix died sud­den­ly ten days befo­re the end of the shoot in 1993, the film’s insu­rance com­pa­ny beca­me the owner of the unfi­nis­hed mate­ri­al. Years later, direc­tor George Sluizer mana­ged to save his foo­ta­ge from being des­troy­ed. In January 2012 he deci­ded to finish the film by rea­ding aloud off-screen the miss­ing sce­nes from the screen­play. The resul­ting work is an exis­ten­tia­list lat­ter-day Western which deri­ves much of its evo­ca­ti­ve power from the pre­sence of its lea­ding man, who was hims­elf tee­te­ring on the brink of death.

Nl 2012, 86 Min., engl. OmU 
Regie: George Sluizer 
Kamera: Edward Lachman
Schnitt: Michiel Reichwein 
mit: River Phoenix Judy Davis Jonathan Pryce Karen Black

A film by  João Pedro Rodrigues. In por­tu­ge­se with ger­man subtitles.

Fernando, a soli­ta­ry orni­tho­lo­gist, is loo­king for black storks, a spe­ci­es under thre­at, along a remo­te river in nor­t­hern Portugal, when he is swept away by the rapids. Rescued by a cou­ple of Chinese pil­grims on the road to Santiago de Compostela, he plun­ges into an eerie and dark forest, try­ing to get back on his track. But gra­du­al­ly, as he encoun­ters unex­pec­ted and uncan­ny obs­ta­cles and peo­p­le who put him to the test, Fernando is impel­led to extre­me actions which trans­form him. Little by litt­le, he beco­mes a dif­fe­rent man, inspi­red, mul­ti-face­ted and final­ly, total­ly enlightened.

O Ornitólogo,
Port./F/Bras. 2016, 118 Min., port. OmU,
Buch und Regie: João Pedro Rodrigues,
Kamera: Rui Pocas,
Schnitt: Raphaël Lefèvre,
mit: Paul Hamy, Han Wen, Chan Suan, Xelo Cagiao u.a.

A Film by Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Gross,

On the evening of her 52nd bir­th­day, Georgian lite­ra­tu­re tea­cher Manana unex­pec­ted­ly announ­ces to her fami­ly that she is lea­ving. She has been mar­ried for 30 years and lives in a three-bed­room flat in Tbilisi with her hus­band, par­ents, two child­ren and her son-in-law.

The mem­bers of her fami­ly repre­sent three gene­ra­ti­ons and are com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent from each other: Manana’s hus­band Soso (55); their daugh­ter Nino (24), who is mar­ried and ado­res her hus­band Vakho (27); Manana’s son Lasha (20); Manana’s mother Lamara (72), the pil­lar of the fami­ly who takes care of ever­y­bo­dy; and Manana’s father Otar (80), who after a long and exhaus­ting life, dreams of death which seems slow in coming. Initially, the fami­ly don’t take Manana’s decis­i­on serious­ly. But then she packs her suit­ca­se and lea­ves. The fami­ly is sho­cked and inc­re­du­lous: whe­re is she going? Who upset her? She is past ‚divorce age‘ after all, and has a good hus­band who doesn’t drink, take drugs or beat her.

Chemi Bednieri Ojakhi
Georgien/D/F 2016, 120 Min., georg. OmU 
Regie: Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Gross 
Drehbuch: Nana Ekvtimishvili 
Kamera: Tudor Panduru 
Schnitt: Stefan Stabenow 
Darsteller: Ia Shugliashvili, Merab Ninidze, Berta Khapava, Tsisia Kumsishvili, Giorgi Khurtsilava, Giorgi Tabidze

Trailer MEINE GLÜCKLICHE FAMILIE from Zorro Film on Vimeo.

Im Kino in der OmU Fassung !!

A film by Asli Özarslan.

At 26, a Kurdish-German woman is elec­ted the youn­gest mayor in Turkey. In a record 81% lands­li­de she is elec­ted mayor of Cizre, a Kurdish capi­tal city that lies in the war-torn regi­on at Turkey’s bor­der with Syria and Iraq. It is here that Leyla was born, but after her father was kil­led by the Turkish mili­ta­ry, she was sent at the age of 5 to live in Germany. After more than 20 years, she returns home. Her goal is to heal and beau­ti­fy the civil-war-torn city, which is enjoy­ing a break in the vio­lence. But on the eve of Turkey’s par­lia­men­ta­ry elec­tions, ever­y­thing chan­ges, and old memo­ries beco­me more real than ever.

D 2016, 71 Min.
Regie: Asli Özarslan
Kamera: Carina Neubohn
Schnitt: Ana Branea

The Jewish Film Festival Berlin & Brandenburg has been the lar­gest forum for Jewish and Israeli cine­ma in Germany for more than two deca­des, making it the oldest and most important cul­tu­ral event of its kind and a vital part of the diver­se Jewish life of Berlin and Brandenburg.
More: www.jfbb.de

JFBB at the fsk:

A film by Jochen Hick. Starts 29.6. at the fsk.

In West Berlin in the 1960s it was pos­si­ble to find bars whe­re men could be left to them­sel­ves – a fact that was to turn the city into a magnet for young gay men. The prot­ago­nists of this film, all still acti­ve mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty today, recall tho­se ear­ly years in the city. Theirs are memo­ries of a com­mu­ni­ty that fought ste­adi­ly for its exis­tence, and of its chan­ge, right up to the fall of the Wall. Faced with con­sidera­ble social repres­si­on in the 1970s, a coll­ec­ti­ve gay iden­ti­ty began to emer­ge, and the ‘West Berlin homo­se­xu­al cam­paign’ cal­led for the aboli­ti­on of para­graph 175 and the over­throw of patri­ar­chy. Ruined buil­dings beco­me the venues for new ways of living tog­e­ther such as all-male com­mu­nes or the ‘que­er house’. Cottaging, East-West affairs, lea­ther bars, drag per­for­man­ces in the sub­way – an anar­chic kind of joy out­shi­nes past suf­fe­ring. A deca­de later, AIDS was to hit Berlin. After Out in Ost-Berlin (Out In East Berlin) Jochen Hick explo­res que­er life­styl­es in the West of the city and the roots of a fasci­na­ti­on that the metro­po­lis still holds as a refu­ge – and not just for gay men. A fasci­na­ting jour­ney through time fea­turing pre­vious­ly unpu­blished archi­ve material.

A film by Albert Serra.  In french with ger­man subtitles.

A king lea­ves this world, slow­ly but ine­vi­ta­b­ly. A few more jokes about a naked madam, attempts to con­ti­nue his offi­ci­al duties while a group of doc­tors whis­pe­ring by the edge of the bed. A repre­sen­ta­tio­nal dra­ma of an era, distil­led into an exu­berant inti­ma­te play.

La Mort de Louis XIV
F 2016, 115 Min., franz. OmU
Regie: Albert Serra
Buch:Albert Serra, Thierry Lounas
Kamera: Jonathan Ricquebourg,Julien Hogert, Artur Tort
Schnitt: Ariadne Ribas, Artur Tort,Albert Serra
mit Jean-Pierre Léaud, Patrick d’Assumçao, Marc Susini

A film by Mike Mills. In eng­lish with ger­man subtitles.

Mike Mills 20TH CENTURY WOMEN is a warm-hear­ted trip to late 70s sun­ny California. The film has a whiff of wistful­ness , per­haps becau­se Mills made the film as a homage to the bel­oved, uncon­ven­tio­nal women in his life, or may­be becau­se the 70s was a time when peo­p­le real­ly attempt­ed to crea­te indi­vi­du­al life plans. The lumi­nous cen­ter of the film is Annette Bening, who plays sin­gle mom Dorothea Fields with a lot of charm and ver­ve. Growing up in the 30s, Dorothea had her son late, when she was over 40, and she cares for him in a libe­ral way. In flash­backs we see the crea­ti­ve excu­se let­ters that she wri­tes for her son Jamie for school. She lives with Jamie, play­ed by Lucas Jade Zumann as a very lova­ble and someone intro­ver­ted teen­ager, and her ten­ant Abbie, a depres­sed punk pho­to­grapher play­ed by Greta Gerwig, in a shab­by gem of a house. Other qua­si room­ma­tes are car­pen­ter William (Billy Crudup), a sexy hip­pie who helps with the reno­vat­ing, and neigh­bor girl Julie (Elle Fanning), Jamie’s best fri­end – a sta­tus that’s hard for Jamie to swallow.

In the begin­ning of the film Dorothea deci­des that Jamie needs other attach­ment figu­res along with her so he can suc­cessful­ly go through puber­ty and asks Abbie for help. She takes the boy to con­certs and gives him femi­nist books. 20TH CENTURY WOMEN shows the coll­ec­ti­ve attempt to mas­ter Jamie’s puber­ty in a time of poli­ti­cal uphe­aval in a fun­ny, nost­al­gic, and lova­ble way. Mills has a good a grasp on the various gene­ra­ti­ons as well as on the slight­ly over­whel­med 20th cen­tu­ry boy in the midd­le.   (Hendrike Bake)

20th Century Women
USA 2016, 118 Min.
Regie: Mike Mills
Drehbuch: Mike Mills
Kamera: Sean Porter
Musik: Roger Neill
Darsteller: Billy Crudup, Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig

A film by Philippe Van Leeuw. In ara­bic with ger­man subtitles.

Energetic Oum Yazan is try­ing despera­te­ly to keep tog­e­ther her fami­ly life whilst out­side a war is raging. The fami­ly sits tog­e­ther around a lar­ge table at mid­day, ever­yo­ne try­ing to make them­sel­ves heard abo­ve the can­no­na­de of bombs and machi­ne gun fire. There is hard­ly any water and every trip out­side the door spells dan­ger on account of the sni­pers on the roof­tops abo­ve. While Grandfather plays with his litt­le grand­child, the oldest daugh­ter flirts with her boy­fri­end in her room. Next door a young cou­ple with a baby are plan­ning their escape. Up abo­ve, threa­tening noi­ses can be heard. Who’s that kno­cking at the door? Could it be Oum Yazan’s hus­band who­se return she has been anxious­ly awai­ting, or are the­re stran­ge men out­side, loo­king for valu­ables? Just a few shots are neces­sa­ry to draw the view­er into the per­ma­nent sta­te of emer­gen­cy that is war. The apart­ment that was once a fami­li­ar home has now beco­me a pri­son. Philippe Van Leeuw’s huis clos descri­bes peo­p­le in an extre­me situa­ti­on that gives rise to extre­me beha­viour. Every decis­i­on could be a mat­ter of life or death: is it moral­ly accep­ta­ble to sacri­fice one mem­ber of the fami­ly to gua­ran­tee the sur­vi­val of the others?

Insyriated
Belgien, 2017, 85 Min., arab. OmU
Regie & Buch: Philippe Van Leeuw
Kamera: Virginie Surdej
Schnitt: Gladys Joujou
Mit Hiam Abbass, Diamand Bou Abboud, Juliette Navis