A film by Bruno Dumont. In French with German subtitles.

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The Opal Coast, nor­t­hern France. In a quiet and pic­tures­que fishing vil­la­ge, some­thing final­ly hap­pens: a spe­cial baby is born. A child so uni­que and pecu­li­ar that it unleas­hes a secret war bet­ween extra­ter­restri­al forces of good and evil.

Ausgezeichnet mit dem Silbernen Bären — Preis der Jury auf der Berlinale 2024

Credits:

L’Empire
FR/ DE/ IT/ BE/ PT 2024, 110 Min. fran­zö­si­sche OmU
Regie: Bruno Dumont
Kamera: David Chambille
Schnitt: Desideria Rayner, Bruno Dumont
mit: Camille Cottin, Lyna Khoudri, Fabrice Luchini, Anamaria Vartolomei, Bernard Pruvost

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A film by Karim Aïnouz. In Portugese with German subtitles.

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The neon-hued Motel Destino is a roadsi­de sex hotel under the bur­ning blue ski­es of the coast of Northern Brazil, run by the boo­rish Elias and his frus­tra­ted, beau­tiful wife Dayana. When 21 year-old Heraldo finds hims­elf at the motel, after mes­sing up a hit and going on the run from both the poli­ce and the gang he let down, Dayana finds hers­elf intrigued and lets him stay. As the two navi­ga­te a dance of power, desi­re and libe­ra­ti­on, a dan­ge­rous plan for free­dom emer­ges. In this tro­pi­cal noir, loyal­ties and desi­res intert­wi­ne, reve­al­ing that desti­ny has its own enig­ma­tic design.

Credits:

BR/DE/FR 2024, 115 Min., Portugiesisch OmU
Regie: Karim Aïnouz
Kamera: Hélène Louvart
Schnitt: Nelly Quettier
mit: Fábio Assunção, Nataly Rocha, Iago Xavier

Trailer:

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A film by Kazuhiro Soda. In Japanese with German subtitles.

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Steep steps lead up to the Gokogu Shinto shri­ne in Ushimado. The local child­ren play on them and the older resi­dents attend to their upkeep, even plan­ting mint on eit­her side. Kazuhiro Soda pres­ents the­se steps as a site of tran­si­ti­on that also forms a key ele­ment of this tiny set-up. For this ele­va­ted shri­ne isn’t just some­whe­re to visit for spi­ri­tu­al pur­po­ses – Ushimado’s feline com­mu­ni­ty has also set up home here, an occa­sio­nal­ly dyna­mic coll­ec­ti­ve con­sis­ting of cats aban­do­ned by their owners and their sub­se­quent off­spring. They need to be cared for, even as their popu­la­ti­on must be kept in check. Kazuhiro Soda’s docu­men­ta­ries – many of them which have alre­a­dy scree­ned at the Forum – always fol­low his own set of rules and show the see­mingly inno­cuous, yet still weigh­ty requi­re­ments of co-exis­tence. Slowly, yet per­sis­t­ent­ly, The Cats of Gokogu Shrine expands his gaze; the focus on details, ever­y­day ten­der­nes­ses and disci­pli­ne gives this chro­nic­le of a year a dimen­si­on that is at once down-to-earth and uni­ver­sal. And the pre­sence of Kazuhiro Soda hims­elf, who has lived in Ushimado for seve­ral years, can also be expe­ri­en­ced first-hand in a res­trai­ned, honest manner.

Credits:

Gokogu no Neko
JP 2024, 119 Min., japa­ni­sche OmU
Regie, Kamera, Schnitt: Kazuhiro Soda 

Trailer:

Im Kino mit deut­schen Untertiteln

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A film by Pedro Almodóvar. In English with German subtitles.

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Ingrid and Martha were clo­se fri­ends in their youth, when they work­ed tog­e­ther at the same maga­zi­ne. Ingrid went on to beco­me an auto­fic­tion nove­list while Martha beca­me a war repor­ter. Eventually, they were sepa­ra­ted by the cir­cum­s­tances of life. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extre­me but stran­ge­ly sweet situation.

Credits:

DE 2023, 90 Min., engl. OmU
Regie: Pedro Almodóvar
Kamera: Eduard Grau
Schnitt: Teresa Font
mit: Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, Alessandro Nivola, Juan Diego Botto 

Trailer:

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A film by Bertrand Bonello. In English and French with German subtitles.

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The Beast, Bertrand Bonello’s asto­nis­hing sci-fi dra­ma, is a thril­ling jour­ney of the mind staged with visio­na­ry élan. Loosely adap­ting the Henry James novel­la The Beast in the Jungle (1903), Bonello tells the ill-fated sto­ry of Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) and Louis (George MacKay), which is recon­fi­gu­red over three points in time and space: Paris in 2044, in Los Angeles in 2014 and Paris once again in 1910. A dark cloud looms over the heroine’s trou­bled soul from the out­set. In a near-future world domi­na­ted by AI whe­re pro­duc­ti­vi­ty is ever­y­thing, she is rest­less, emo­tio­nal and thus sub-opti­mal. Cleansing her “DNA” offers an appa­rent solu­ti­on, wher­eby she is trans­por­ted through a time por­tal whe­re she expe­ri­en­ces frag­ments of her past lives, which are dele­ted from her mind in the pro­cess. Gabrielle first meets Louis in 1910, who cap­tures her heart and spi­rit, as a powerful bond is for­ged, full of melan­cho­ly and eter­nal lon­ging. A poignant quest for deeper con­nec­tion, LA BÊTE fol­lows two lovers who will never live out their mutu­al attrac­tion. As we move with them from one epoch to the next, like in a hall of bro­ken mir­rors whe­re memo­ry and fee­lings mer­ge into exci­ting but pain­ful expe­ri­en­ces, we rea­li­ze that ever­y­thing human is doo­med to vanish. (Maria Giovanna Vagenas)

Credits:

FR/CA 2023, 146 Min., engl./frz. OmU
Regie: Bertrand Bonello
Kamera: Josée Deshaies
Schnitt: Anita Roth
mit: Léa Seydoux, George MacKay, Guslagie Malanda, Dasha Nekrasova, Martin Scali, Elina Löwensohn

Trailer:

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A film by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor. In Arabic, Hebrew and English with German subtitles.

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Basel Adra, a young Palestinian acti­vist from Masafer Yatta on the West Bank, has been fight­ing the mass expul­si­on of his com­mu­ni­ty by Israel’s occu­pa­ti­on sin­ce child­hood. He docu­ments the slow-moti­on era­di­ca­ti­on of the vil­la­ges in his home regi­on whe­re sol­diers deploy­ed by the Israeli govern­ment are gra­du­al­ly demo­li­shing hou­ses and dri­ving out their resi­dents. At some point, he meets Yuval, an Israeli jour­na­list, who sup­ports him in his efforts. An unli­kely alli­ance deve­lo­ps. But the rela­ti­onship bet­ween the two is strai­ned by the enorm­ous ine­qua­li­ty bet­ween them: Basel lives under mili­ta­ry occu­pa­ti­on while Yuval lives free­ly and wit­hout rest­ric­tions.
This film by a Palestinian-Israeli coll­ec­ti­ve of four young acti­vists has been made as an act of crea­ti­ve resis­tance on the path to grea­ter justice.

Credits:

PS/NO 2024, 95 Min., Arabisch, Hebräisch, Englisch OmU
Regie & Schnitt: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
Kamera: Rachel Szor 

Trailer:

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A film by Małgorzata Szumowska & Michał Englert. In Polish with German subtitles.

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Set against the land­scape of the Polish trans­for­ma­ti­on from com­mu­nism to capi­ta­lism, Kobieta z… spans 45 years of the life of Aniela Wesoły and her jour­ney to find per­so­nal liber­ty as a trans woman. She faces hard­ships in fami­ly life and com­pli­ca­ted atti­tu­des in her envi­ron­ment. What choices will Aniela have to make to beco­me who she tru­ly is?

Credits:

Kobieta Z…
PL/SE 2023, 132 Min., poln. OmU
Regie: Małgorzata Szumowska & Michał Englert
Kamera: Michał Englert
Schnitt: Jarosław Kamiński
mit: Małgorzata Hajewska, Joanna Kulig, Mateusz Więcławek, Bogumiła Bajor

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A film by Mati Diop.

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November 2021. 26 roy­al tre­asu­res of the Kingdom of Dahomey are about to lea­ve Paris to return to their coun­try of ori­gin, the pre­sent-day Republic of Benin. Along with thou­sands of others, the­se arte­facts were plun­de­red by French colo­ni­al tro­ops in 1892. But what atti­tu­de to adopt to the­se ances­tors’ home­co­ming in a coun­try that had to for­ge ahead in their absence? The deba­te rages among stu­dents at the University of Abomey-Calavi.

Berlinale 2024: Golden Bear

Credits:

FR/SN/BJ 2024, 67 Min., Französisch, Fon, Englisch OmU
Regie: Mati Diop
Kamera: Josephine Drouin Viallard
Schnitt: Gabriel Gonzalez

Trailer:

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A film by Tuna Kaptan. Starts September 26th at the fsk. In German, English and Albanian with German subtitles.

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The con­s­truc­tion site of a luxu­ry buil­ding pro­ject at night: The ambi­tious con­s­truc­tion mana­ger Lutz has hired ille­gal con­s­truc­tion workers to save cos­ts. But a tra­gic acci­dent occurs. The next day, a mee­ting with inves­tors is sud­den­ly dis­rupt­ed by 14-year-old Irsa, who is loo­king for her father. While Lutz sen­ses an oppor­tu­ni­ty to make his mark on a mul­ti-mil­li­on dol­lar pro­ject, Irsa’s despe­ra­ti­on keeps dri­ving her towards him. To keep her off his con­s­truc­tion site, he deci­des to take her away. On their jour­ney tog­e­ther, a bond deve­lo­ps, mark­ed by clo­sen­ess and distance, guilt and responsibility.

Credits:

DE 2023, 86 Min., Deutsch, Englisch, Albanisch mit dt. UT
Regie: Tuna Kaptan
Kamera: Ben Bernhard
Schnitt: Beatrice Babin
mit: Angjela Prenci, Peter Schneider

Trailer:

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A film by Ramon Zürcher. In German with English subtitles.

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Karen lives with her hus­band Markus and their child­ren in her idyl­lic child­hood home. Karen’s sis­ter Jule and her fami­ly are visi­ting for Markus’ bir­th­day. The two women could not be more dif­fe­rent. Grim remin­ders of their decea­sed mother inci­te Jule’s rebel­li­on against her domi­nee­ring sis­ter. As the house gra­du­al­ly fills with life and a spar­row in the chim­ney seeks a way out to free­dom, Karen beco­mes incre­asing­ly ten­se – until it all comes to a head and the old is des­troy­ed to make room for the new.

Credits:

CH 2024, 117 Min., deut­sche Originalfassung mit eng­li­schen Untertiteln
Regie & Schnitt: Ramon Zürcher
Kamera: Alex Hasskerl
Produzent: Silvan Zürcher
mit: Maren Eggert, Britta Hammelstein, Luise Heyer, Andreas Döhler, Milian Zerzawy, Lea Zoe Voss, Ilja Bultmann, Paula Schindler, Luana Greco

Trailer:

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