Category: Spezialvorstellung

A film by Christian Hornung. Starts October 8th at the fsk. In German and English with German subtitles.

[Credits] [Tickets & Termine] [Trailer]

A bridge, a neigh­bour­hood, a city in flux: when the decis­i­on is made to demo­lish Hamburg’s Sternbrücke, a micro­c­osm that has grown up over time – com­pri­sing clubs, kiosks, work­shops and the local com­mu­ni­ty – is thrown into turm­oil. STERNBRÜCKE FOREVER tells a warm-hear­ted and humo­rous sto­ry of fare­well and resistance.

Beneath Hamburg’s Sternbrücke, a uni­que micro­c­osm of clubs, kiosks, work­shops and the local com­mu­ni­ty has flou­ris­hed. Mehmet sells fal­a­fel, Martina runs a kiosk, and Stefan repairs cars. And every weekend, young peo­p­le flock to the clubs run by Juri, Daniel, Ute and others beneath the Sternbrücke. But their time here is run­ning out. When the decis­i­on is made to demo­lish the bridge, a peri­od of uncer­tain­ty las­ting seve­ral years beg­ins for the local com­mu­ni­ty. The film fol­lows the com­mu­ni­ty in a sta­te of uphe­aval – caught bet­ween ever­y­day life, fare­wells and resistance.

STERNBRÜCKE FOREVER is a warm-hear­ted and sur­pri­sin­gly humo­rous decla­ra­ti­on of love for a spe­cial place and its peo­p­le, and at the same time a furious com­men­ta­ry on urban poli­cy, the con­se­quen­ces of which can be obser­ved in many cities. A Hamburg sto­ry thus beco­mes a uni­ver­sal nar­ra­ti­ve about chan­ge and soli­da­ri­ty – and about the ques­ti­on of who the city belongs to and what makes it worth living in.

Credits:

DE 2026, 99 mins, German, English with German sub­tit­les
Written and direc­ted by: Christian Hornung
Cinematography: Marvin Hesse
Editing: Christian Hornung

Trailer:

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A film by Ulrike Franke & Michael Loeken. Starts October 10th at the fsk. In German and English with German subtitles.

[Credits] [Tickets & Termine] [Trailer]

The num­ber and diver­si­ty of birds are decli­ning dra­ma­ti­cal­ly world­wi­de. At the same time, more and more peo­p­le are dis­co­ve­ring the world of birds for them­sel­ves: they all have their own uni­que sto­ry that has led them to beco­me birdwatchers.

Looking through bino­cu­lars is also a quest for some­thing pri­mal, uni­que and true. In an almost magi­cal way, this quest seems to trans­fer to the view­er, as if one were step­ping out of the cine­ma into ano­ther world with heigh­ten­ed sen­ses. Our film shifts the focus from the birds back to the peo­p­le who inspi­re us with their love of birds and their devo­ti­on to natu­re. We also meet the world-famous aut­hor Jonathan Franzen, who says: “One reason why wild birds are so important (…) is that they repre­sent our last, best con­nec­tion to a natu­ral world that is other­wi­se in the pro­cess of disappearing.”

Politically char­ged, serious yet also humo­rous, the film uses cine­ma­tic imagery and inten­se sound­scapes to paint a pic­tu­re of a socie­ty in the midst of a major cri­sis and peri­od of uphe­aval. The film beco­mes a nar­ra­ti­ve of doubt and hope, life and death, of stay­ing and dis­ap­pearing. And the birds beco­me, in an exhi­la­ra­ting, almost eerie way, a meta­phor for the sta­te of the world.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Credits:

DE 2026, 92 mins, German and English with German sub­tit­les
Directed by: Ulrike Franke & Michael Loeken
Cinematography: Jörg Adams, Hajo Schomerus
Edited by: Sophie Oldenbourg, Guido Krajewski

Trailer:

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A film by Visar Morina. In Albanian with German subtitles.

[Credits] [Tickets & Termine] [Trailer]

“Feeling asha­med is a luxu­ry,” Hatixhe explains to her sis­ter. A luxu­ry that she and her hus­band Shaban can­not afford. With their three daugh­ters and their grand­mo­ther, they were forced to
lea­ve their vil­la­ge in Kosovo. Their liveli­hood was taken away from them. Now they live with Hatixhe’s sis­ter and her hus­band, a wealt­hy busi­ness­man, in Pristina. Shaban seems to have got lucky: his brot­her-in-law has given him a job as a clea­ner
in his club. Even if it’s only three days a week. Certainly not enough. Shaban doesn’t find out how much he ear­ns any­way. He doesn’t dare ask eit­her. Because in their new life, the most important thing is to be gra­teful. Grateful for a roof over
their heads, gra­teful for any job, howe­ver humi­lia­ting, gra­teful for any form of sup­port. The help that Shaban and Hatixhe recei­ve is never uncon­di­tio­nal. It con­stant­ly reminds them of their place in socie­ty. Those who give set the rules. Those who recei­ve must be gra­teful.
Visar Morina’s third fea­ture film, fol­lo­wing BABAI and EXIL, takes a relent­less look at the vio­lence of eco­no­mic depen­den­ci­es. It fol­lows Shaban and Hatixhe from the com­pa­ra­tively sta­ble con­di­ti­ons of their vil­la­ge into the social indif­fe­rence of the big city. They sink ever deeper into a spi­ral of finan­cial hard­ship, humi­lia­ti­on and the com­pul­si­on to bow to the expec­ta­ti­ons of others. At one point, Shaban walks through the streets of Pristina as if in a daze. In the back­ground hangs a lar­ge US ban­ner on a buil­ding faça­de; in front of it stands the sta­tue of Bill Clinton. Later, he says: “Sometimes I feel as though I’m not quite the­re.” In his film, which won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema cate­go­ry at Sundance, Morina depicts a socie­ty in which peo­p­le are defi­ned by what they own or can afford.
Jens Thiele | Indiekino

Credits:

DE, XK, SI, AL, MK, BE 2026, 129 mins, Albanian with German sub­tit­les
Director: Visar Morina
Cinematography: Janis Mazuch
Editing: Joëlle Alexis
Starring: Astrit Kabashi, Flonja Kodheli, Kumrije Hoxha, Fiona Gllavica, Alban Uka

Trailer:

im Kino mit deut­schen Untertiteln.

nach oben