A Laura Israel film. In eng­lish with ger­man subtitles.

Robert Frank is reluc­tant to allow hims­elf to be wired up to a micro­pho­ne; one of the world’s most renow­ned pho­to­graph­ers does not want to pose in front of ano­ther person’s lens – and sim­ply lea­ves the frame. This sce­ne from an ear­ly inter­view alre­a­dy reve­als much about his per­so­na­li­ty and his under­stan­ding of art. Bent over his ear­ly pho­to­graphs, which cap­tu­re dai­ly life on the mar­gins of American socie­ty, he explains his approach. ‘It’s best’ he says, ‘if peo­p­le don’t noti­ce that you are pho­to­gra­phing them.’ His por­traits are snapshots that cap­tu­re the moment – in the truest sen­se of the term – whe­ther they depict the lives of London ban­kers, Welsh miners or rock stars like the Stones. Robert Frank opens up in front of the came­ra of his long-stan­ding col­la­bo­ra­tor and edi­tor Laura Israel and looks back, self-con­fi­dent­ly but also self-depre­ca­tingly, at his life and work. The film shows us an artist in action; the wit­ness of an era who remem­bers the years with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg – with whom he made films in the caden­ces of the Beat gene­ra­ti­on. Robert Frank: always a maverick and anar­chist – in any situa­ti­on that life throws at him. (Berlinaletext)

USA/Frankreich 2015, 82 Min., engl. OmU
Regie: Laura Israel
Kamera: Lisa Rinzler, Ed Lachman
Schnitt: Alex Bingham

A film by Antje Hubert.

The resi­dents of Oberndorf could no lon­ger stand pas­si­ve­ly by as their vil­la­ge went fur­ther and fur­ther into decli­ne. The first action was a café run by vol­un­teers. But when the school clo­ses down, the locals and peo­p­le who had moved the­re later rea­li­sed they were facing a much grea­ter chall­enge. The town nee­ded to make money to keep young fami­lies from moving away. With the help of a pro­ject deve­lo­per, they come up with a bold plan and set up a public limi­t­ed com­pa­ny. They busi­ness model is based on liquid manu­re, which is available in vast quan­ti­ties. The idea is to build a bio­gas plant. With the ener­gy, they would rai­se African cat­fi­sh – a tasty fish – and build green­hou­ses to grow exo­tic fruits like bana­nas, all in a clo­sed, was­te-free sys­tem. The idea takes off. But there’s a long way to go befo­re the first fish are rea­dy for market.

D 2016  92 Min. German Version
B., R.:  Antje Hubert
K.: Andreas Stonawski
S.:Magdolna Roko
mit den Bürgerinnen und Bürgern von Oberndorf und Projektentwicklern aus Berlin

An Anna Zamecka film. Starts 4. May.

When the adults are inef­fec­ti­ve, the child­ren have to grow up more quick­ly. Ola is 14 and has to take care of her dys­func­tion­al father, her autis­tic brot­her and her mother who lives away from home. Dreaming about reu­ni­ting the fami­ly, she plans the cele­bra­ti­on of her brother’s First Communion.

Young Eyes Film Award | Dok Leipzig 2016
Best Documentary | Polish Film award 2017
Best Documentary | European Film award 2017

OT: Komunia
Polen 2016, 72 Min., pol­ni­sche OmU
Regie & Buch: Anna Zamecka
Produktion: Anna Wydra, Anna Zamecka, Zuzanna Król, Hanka Kastelicova, Izabela Łopuch
Kamera: Małgorzata Szyłak
Schnitt: Agnieszka Glińska, Anna Zamecka, Wojciech Janas

Ver­leih unter­stützt von:

Trailer zum Film Kommunion from Peripher Filmverleih on Vimeo.

A Film by Martin Butler & Bentley Dean. In Nauvhal lan­guage with ger­man subtitles.

In a tra­di­tio­nal tri­bal socie­ty in the South Pacific, a young girl, Wawa, falls in love with her chief’s grand­son, Dain. When an inter­tri­bal war escala­tes, Wawa is unkno­wing­ly betro­thed as part of a peace deal. The young lovers run away, refu­sing her arran­ged fate. They must choo­se bet­ween their hearts and the future of the tri­be, while the vil­la­gers must wrest­le with pre­ser­ving their tra­di­tio­nal cul­tu­re and adap­ting it to the incre­asing out­side demands for indi­vi­du­al freedom.

Australien/ Vanuatu 2015, 100 Min., Nauvhal OmU
Regie: Martin Butler & Bentley Dean
Buch: Martin Butler, John Collee & Bentley Dean
Kamera: Bentley Dean
Schnitt: Tania Nehme
Darsteller: Mungau Dain, Marie Wawa, Marceline Rofit, Chief Charlie Kahla, Albi Nangia, Lingai Kowia, Dadwa Mungau, Linette Yowayin, Kapan Cook, Chief Mungau Yokay, Chief Mikum Tainokou

A Benedict Andrews film.  In eng­lish with ger­man subtitles.

A young woman arri­ves unex­pec­ted­ly at an older man’s work­place loo­king for ans­wers as to their shared past in an abu­si­ve sexu­al relationship.
Una & Ray is based upon on the play Blackbird by David Harrower, who also wro­te the fil­m’s screenplay.

OT: Una
GB 2016, 94 Min., engl. OmU
Regie: Benedict Andrews
Drehbuch: David Harrower
Kamera: Thimios Bakatakis
Schnitt: Nick Fenton
mit: Rooney Mara, Ben Mendelsohn, Tara Fitzgerald, Riz Ahmed, Tobias Menzies

A film by Raoul Peck. In eng­lish with ger­man subtitles.

In June 1979 renow­ned US wri­ter James Baldwin began work on his last, unfi­nis­hed text ‘Remember this House’. His per­so­nal memo­ries of his three mur­de­red civil rights fri­ends Malcolm X, Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King and his reflec­tions on his own pain­ful expe­ri­en­ces as a black American ser­ve to re-wri­te American history.
Raoul Peck has tur­ned the­se thir­ty hither­to unpu­blished pages into a powerful col­la­ge of archi­ve pho­to­graphs, excerp­ts from films and news­re­el foo­ta­ge: the boy­cotts and the resis­tance against racial segre­ga­ti­on in the 1950s and 1960s, the invi­si­bi­li­ty of black Americans in Hollywood’s legen­da­ry works, the Afro-American pro­tests against white poli­ce bru­ta­li­ty that con­ti­nue to take place even today, Baldwin’s com­plex rela­ti­onship with the Black Power Movement and one FBI report’s para­no­id view of Baldwin’s homo­se­xua­li­ty. A tren­chant and dis­tur­bing essay about the rea­li­ty of the lives of African Americans – lives that are still lar­ge­ly igno­red by America’s main­stream. Samuel L Jackson’s voice lends Baldwin’s poe­tic, medi­ta­ti­ve lan­guage sui­ta­ble expression.

Frankreich / USA / Belgien / Schweiz 2016, 93 Min., engl. OmU
Regie: Raoul Peck
Buch: James Baldwin, Raoul Peck
Kamera: Henry Adebonojo, Bill Ross, Turner Ross
Schnitt: Alexandra Strauss
Mit
James Baldwin
Samuel L. Jackson (Erzähler)
Malcolm X
Martin Luther King Jr.
Medgar Evers
Lorraine Hansberry

A film by André Téchiné. Starts 16.3. at the fsk. In french with ger­man subtitles.

Damien and Thomas attend the same grammar school class. They can­not stand each other and when­ever ver­bal insults fail to do enough dama­ge they take a swing at each other. Yet they could just as easi­ly be fri­ends. Damien’s mother Marianne is a coun­try doc­tor and his father a mili­ta­ry pilot on a tour of duty abroad. Thomas is of Maghrebi des­cent and is the adopted son of a far­ming fami­ly living on a remo­te farm in the moun­ta­ins. After seve­ral mis­car­ri­a­ges the farmer’s wife is expec­ting again and, sin­ce her pregnan­cy pro­mi­ses to be a dif­fi­cult one, Marianne invi­tes the with­drawn boy to come and stay with them for a while. Damien and Thomas find them­sel­ves having to live under the same roof …
André Techiné has alre­a­dy taken part in the Berlinale Competition seve­ral times with films such as Les temps qui chan­gent (2005) and Les témo­ins (2007). In Quand on a 17 ans he explo­res what it is like to grow up in dif­fe­rent social envi­ron­ments in this por­trait of two con­fu­sed youths try­ing to govern their emo­ti­ons. A rug­ged vil­la­ge in the moun­ta­ins of south-wes­tern France as the sea­sons pass beco­mes the psy­cho­lo­gi­cal land­scape of the rela­ti­onship bet­ween two young men which vacil­la­tes bet­ween dis­da­in and attraction.

Quand on a 17 ans
Frankreich 2016, 116 Min., fr OmU
Regie: André Téchiné
Buch André Téchiné, Céline Sciamma
Kamera Julien Hirsch
Schnitt Albertine Lastera
Darsteller: Corentin Fila, Sandrine Kiberlain, Kacey Mottet Klein, Alexis Loret, Jean Fornerod

For eight-year-old Djaner, his first day at school in Hamburg seems like won­der­land. It’s class­ma­te Lena’s bir­th­day; she gets pres­ents and the who­le class sings for her. Djaner, a Roma from Macedonia, has only known school as a place to fear a bea­ting and he’s speechl­ess. The trau­ma­tis­ed young boy has migra­ted to Hamburg with his brot­her and mother; the fami­ly hopes to final­ly live in peace. Meanwhile, 11-year-old Ghofran just wants to go home at first. She lis­tens to Arabic rap and, in her head, she still lives in Syria, while her father Adel is busy fight­ing for them to be able to stay in Hamburg. At the school whe­re she’s lear­ning German, Ghofran meets other girls who are allo­wed to do ever­y­thing – wear make-up, swim … it’s a com­ple­te­ly new expe­ri­ence and initi­al­ly, she rejects it out of hand. With each day that pas­ses, Ghofran beco­mes more and more con­fi­dent and secu­re, while Djaner strug­gles with his pent-up rage.

D 2016, 95 Min.
Buch, Regie, Kamera und Ton: Pia Lenz
Montage: Stephan Haase
Musik: The Notwist

A film by Michael Koch. 

Michael Koch’s keen­ly obser­ved and beau­tiful­ly acted milieu stu­dy has the ruc­tious and vul­nerable Marija at the epi­cen­ter, who­se dream of owning her own hair salon beco­mes a distant pro­s­pect when she loses her job as a hotel clea­ning woman.

D, CH 2016, 101 Min. 
Regie: Michael Koch 
Kamera: Bernhard Keller 
Schnitt: Florian Riegel 
Mit: Margarita Breitkreiz, Georg Friedrich, Olga Dinnikova, Sahin Eryilmaz u.a.

An Ira Sachs film. In eng­lish with ger­man subtitles.

“I have a strong fee­ling that eco­no­mics plays an enorm­ous part in the crea­ti­on of cha­rac­ter and dra­ma, It defi­nes so much of who we are and how we expe­ri­ence our day, and the chal­lenges we face. There’s no way to sepa­ra­te some of tho­se ques­ti­ons from the stories”
Ira Sachs

USA 2016, 85 Min., engl. OmU

Regie & Buch: Ira Sachs
Kamera: Óscar Durán
Schnitt: Mollie Goldstein, Aonso Gonçalves

mit
Theo Taplitz
Michael Barbieri
Greg Kinnear
Jennifer Ehle