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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

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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

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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

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A film by Charly Hübner. Starts October 1st at the fsk.

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A Film about the German Band Element of Crime throug­hout the centuries.

Credits:

DE 2024, 93 Min.,
Regie: Charly Hübner
Kamera: Casey Campbell
Schnitt: Christoph Brunner
mit: Sven Regener, Jakob Ilja, Richard Pappik und Maike Rosa Vogel, Florian
Horwarth, Isolation Berlin, Von wegen Lisbeth, Steiner & Madlaina, Ansa
Sauermann

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A film by Adam Cooper. In English.

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In this grip­ping crime thril­ler, Russell Crowe stars as Roy Freeman, an ex-homic­i­de detec­ti­ve with a frac­tu­red memo­ry, forced to revi­sit a case he can’t remember.

As a man’s life hangs in the balan­ce on death row, Freeman must pie­ce tog­e­ther the bru­tal evi­dence from a deca­de-old mur­der inves­ti­ga­ti­on, unco­ve­ring a sinis­ter web of buried secrets and betra­yals lin­king to his past.

With only instincts to trust, he faces a chil­ling truth – some­ti­mes it’s best to let slee­ping dogs lie.

Credits:

DE 2023, 90 Min., engl. OV
Regie: Adam Cooper
Kamera: Ben Nott
Schnitt: Matt Villa
mit: Russell Crowe, Karen Gillan, Marton Csokas, Tommy Flanagan, Thomas M. Wright

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A film by Farahnaz Sharifi. In Farsi with German subtitles.

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My Stolen Planet is a dia­ry-style nar­ra­ti­ve by Farah, an Iranian film­ma­ker. Born during the Islamic revo­lu­ti­on in Iran in 1979, she cap­tures moments of joy and defi­ance in her dai­ly life, navi­ga­ting the con­trast bet­ween dome­stic free­dom and exter­nal oppres­si­on. Simultaneously, she coll­ects 8mm archi­ves from peo­p­le she doesn’t know. Relying on the­se recor­dings from other peo­p­le, she gains a new per­spec­ti­ve on losing memo­ries. Her con­nec­tion with Leyla, an Iranian pro­fes­sor who left Iran during the revo­lu­ti­on, adds a name and a sto­ry to one of the faces in her archi­ve. Farah’s mother, who is suf­fe­ring from Alzheimer’s, moti­va­tes her to con­ti­nue her fight against for­get­ting. In the autumn of 2022, the Women, Life, Freedom upri­sing beco­mes a tur­ning point in Farah’s life, as well as in the lives of many others in Iran. This is a home­ma­de history.

Credits:

Sayyareye doz­di­de sho­deye man
DE/IR 2024, 82 Min., far­si OmU
Regie, Kamera, Schnitt: Farahnaz Sharifi 

Trailer:

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A film by Michel Franco.

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Sylvia is a social worker who leads a simp­le and struc­tu­red life: her daugh­ter, her job, her AA mee­tings. This is blown open when Saul fol­lows her home from their high school reuni­on. Their sur­pri­se encoun­ter will pro­found­ly impact both of them as they open the door to the past.

Credits:

US, MX 2023, 103 Min., engl. OmU
Regie: Michel Franco
Kamera: Yves Cape
Schnitt: Oscar Figueroa Jara, Michel Franco
mit: Jessica Chastain, Peter Sarsgaard, Merritt Wever, Brooke Timber, Josh Charles

Trailer:

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